


The page after the last page

by KeyKnows



Category: Tales of Berseria, Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Adventure, Family, Friendship, Gen, Human!Velvet, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Mikleo/Sorey, Light Angst, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Game(s), Seraph!Sorey, Spoilers for everything, What-If, i'm obviously biased towards berseria and i'm sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2018-11-07 14:36:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 55,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11061042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeyKnows/pseuds/KeyKnows
Summary: Velvet wasn't supposed to ever wake up.Sorey was ready for the possibility of never waking up.But they do wake up. And none of them is ready for it.





	1. Chapter 1

She recognizes this ground. That’s the first coherent thought that forms in her numb mind when her eyes open leisurely; she recognizes this ground and these symbols, all too well.

The second thought that slowly takes away the clouds in her head is that something must have gone wrong, terribly, terribly wrong for her to be able to open her eyes, to be able to feel the cold, hard stone of the Empyrean’s throne under her.

She tries to get up, rising her cheek from the floor and putting her right palm on the ground and then her left and then—

She screams. There are not bandages covering her left arm, and instead of finding the unnaturally blackened skin marked with red that she has come to know, she sees white, pristine skin, like nothing ever happened to change it, like it has always been like this.

The realization makes the task of getting up easier, as she tries to get away from such sight, which cannot be anything but a mirage. But the fake arm follows her and stays attached to her, even though she knows it shouldn’t, because it can’t be hers. 

She forcefully tears her gaze away from the arm and takes on her surroundings. The temple is as she remembers it and it’s not. It’s like she’s seeing an old, crumbling painting of it; the white stone has been darkened by the pass of time, the carefully craved symbols smooth away with rain and wind and some of the imposing, thick pillars are falling apart.

It’s not the first time she has been victim of illusions, so this, she muses, must be another one, a lie spread to make her doubt. She imagines only Innominat could pull this off, but she cannot fathom why or how.

And then, she hears her name.

She turns, adopting a battle stance immediately, realizing that she doesn’t have her gauntlet, or any clothes on for the matter, and that if a fight arise she will be at disadvantage.

The person calling her name is one she doesn’t recognize, she frowns and bares her teeth, as a warning, hoping that she won’t have to fight like this.

But the young man calling her walks to her with confidence and without fear. She shouldn’t look much like threat, anyway.

“Velvet…” he says as a whisper “You’re Velvet Crowe.”

She squints her eyes at him, wary of his intentions. She doesn’t know him, and she doesn’t know how he could know her. As he closes the distance between them Velvet notices the man is a malak, his brown hair becoming white and yellow at the tips; he’s also wearing what seems to be a ceremonial white cloak with intricate patterns embroidered in black, and has a ceremonial looking sword hanging in his right hip.

“Velvet,” he calls again, stepping in her direction. He hasn’t stop advancing.

“Stand back!” she yells at him, stopping him immediately “who are you and what do you want?!”

He looks at her with a dumbfounded expression for a moment, like he didn’t expect her to react like that. He quickly composes a reassuring and sincere smile:

“Sorry for startling you,” he says, truly apologetic and a little sheepishly “I’m Sorey and I…” he pauses, and his smile wavers for a second “…I was the Shepherd.”

Velvet’s frown deepens at his words. The mention of such title puts her on edge and her whole body twitches on its place, almost attacking him. She resists the urge, because she doesn’t really know what’s going on and the man in front of her is a malak and obviously has his freewill, so it’s unlikely his words are a trap.

Still, even though she decides giving him the benefit of the doubt, if only because he may hold information on what’s happening, she doesn’t drop her guard.

“The _Shepherd_ ,” she repeats with utter disdain, trying to prompt him to talk.

Sorey opens his eyes a little, like he just remembered something. The sheepish smile returns to his face.

“I’m sorry,” he says again “all this must be really confusing, please follow me, I’ll explain everything or…well, Maotelus will.”

He turns and starts walking in the entrance direction, expecting her to follow. She watches him go for a moment, his relaxed demeanor making nothing to soothe the worries racing in her mind. She looks around, considering getting out of here, but the scenery around the throne is not as she knows it to look like; she remembers green pastures extending in the distance and now the throne is surrounded with low, steep hills. If this is an illusion she may find an obstacle on her scape that wouldn’t let her leave the area, but if this is not an illusion, and she can’t see how it _couldn’t_ , then she will be on unknown territory, naked, with no blade and no daemon arm.

She decides the best course of action is to do how the malak, Sorey, says. She starts walking with bare feet over the cold stone, her steps light and soundless. When he gets in front of the huge doors he turns to look at her, making sure she’s there.

Velvet stops a few meters behind him, waiting for him to open the doors. Sorey looks at her for a moment, his face appearing suddenly somber, very much unlike the smiles he showed him not so long ago.

The grim look comes and goes quickly, way too fast for her to know if it really was there.

“By the way, aren’t you uncomfortable?” he asks, referring to her bare body, though he seems unperturbed by it.

“It’s not like I have much of an option.” She answers. In other time she may have care about a man seeing her like this, but right now she couldn’t care less; she’s more worried about finding a blade instead of clothes if she’s honest.

“Still…” Sorey muses, looking at her “Here!” He says, like he just got an incredible idea “Put this on, at least. The wind is cold here.”

He takes off his ceremonial-looking cloak and walks towards her, extending it in one hand. Velvet takes the offer without much thought, it’s better than nothing after all. And the wind, she notices suddenly, is indeed cold here.

She puts it on, and it certainly doesn’t offer much cover, since she’s still naked from the waist down. The back of the cloak is dived in three however, so she takes the two parts at the sides, letting the middle one to cover her behind, and ties them in front of her, effectively if not practically, covering her womanhood.

Once she’s ready she nods at him and he nods back, returning to the doors and opening them.

The old, worn down stone of the doors moves little by little. It takes a while for Sorey to open a crack wide enough for them to pass.

“C’mon” he says, and hurries inside.

Velvet gives it a one last thought and with a sigh she goes in.

She wonders, while submerging in the darkness of the temple, where the others could be.

* * *

The interior of the Throne is, just like everything else, not quite as she knows it to be. It’s very dark and cold, it feels abandoned even, but in some measure it’s also welcoming. The Throne has now a tranquil atmosphere to it, almost warm despite its creepy looks; Velvet remembers a Throne basked in the white light of reason and righteousness, a place of judgment that didn’t allowed just anyone inside.

Now, in spite of its enormous size, it looks almost humble.

Sorey walks in front of her unafraid of the dark and sure of his steps, like he knows this place like the back of his hand. Velvet stays at the entrance.

As a daemon, all of her senses were highlighted, and darkness became an ally in her misdeeds instead of a handicap. But now, she realizes a little horrified, she can’t really see: everything that lies beyond the beam of light from the crack on the door are just amorphous shadows, and she’s unable to see what lies at the very back of the enormous room.

She opens and closes her fists repeatedly, trying to see if something in her left arm will change. Nothing happens.

Sorey stops, the echo of his steps suddenly missing, but she can’t see him. She just hears the quiet “oh” he exhales and suddenly there’s light.

Several meters in front of her, Sorey is looking in her direction a small ball of lighting resting in his palm: He’s holding a piece of the stormy sky in it, illuminating the place with irregular but constant light.

Velvet looks at what he’s doing and has a moment to think she hasn’t met a malak that can control lightning, not like this.

More than ever she needs answers, so she resumes her way and walks towards him. He continues too.

Soon enough they arrive to the back of the area, at the stone throne with the big Innominat symbol behind of it. Thanks to the illumination provide by Sorey’s lighting, it all looks strongly supernatural.

“Maotelus,” Sorey calls at the throne, at the symbol, at the air “Maotelus. She is here.”

Nothing happens for a while. For some long minutes the stillness of the place is almost unbearable, but Sorey is still looking at the distance, awaiting something Velvet cannot see, so she waits too.

She has so many questions hiding under her mutism. She doesn’t know who Maotelus is supposed to be or why they would be here. She guesses they’re a malak, but that doesn’t explain they presence on this place. Worse of all, apparently this Maotelus was awaiting for her.

On top of the throne a light appears. It starts as a little mote in the middle of the dark and it slowly grows in size, until the point Sorey doesn’t need to keep illuminating the area and until it becomes almost intolerable to look directly at it, but Velvet holds her gaze as steady as possible, squinting but no closing her eyes, not wanting to miss anything.

“Sorey,” the light speaks, though the sound doesn’t seem to really come from it, echoing in the wide room with an ethereal quality. The voice is powerful but gentle, too. “Sorey, leave us alone, please.”

Velvet gets on edge hearing the request.

“Of course. I’ll be just outside if you need anything.” He says, with a gentle smile in her direction, and heads for the door.

Both Velvet and Maotelus stay silent until the sound of Sorey’s steps gets completely lost.

“Who are you?” Velvet asks, her voice hard but conveying no emotion besides annoyance.

“I think you know.” The light responds, and before Velvet can say anything to that, it starts taking shape.

The circle of light slowly starts taking a humanoid form, but it’s small, like a child. Watching it transform Velvet’s stomach drops, getting a bad feeling from all of this. It starts becoming solid, taking color and details. 

She sees a white rope, black stockings and brown shoes. She sees blonde hair and rebel lock standing up in a peculiar manner. She sees, with her eyes sharping, her palms sweating and her fist tightening, she sees the boy in front of her open his forest-yellow eyes and smile.

“Hi, Velvet.” Laphicet says.

“Phi?!” She questions, with disbelief.

She doesn’t understand what’s going on and the only explanation she finds is that this must be some kind of trick. Who is playing with her mind once again is of little importance at the moment, but Velvet has the utter certainty that this cannot be real.

She decided to seal herself with Innominat so Phi could live, so everyone could live, so the world and the people that she had hurt so much could live and get the second chance she didn’t think herself worthy of. She should be sleeping, eternally embraced with the god that stole her brother’s face, keeping the balance of the world after she had threw it into chaos.

“I know that this must be really confusing.” Phi says, his voice as sweet and caring like it always was when he talked to her “But I assure you, this is no trick or illusion. Please sit with me, I’ll tell you everything.”

Phi sits cross-legged on the floor and pats the cold stone beside him, inviting her to do the same. She thinks of attacking him, because this isn’t right, this isn’t how things are supposed to be.

She thinks, however, of the state of the Throne, old and abandoned, hardly a place of constant worship. She thinks of her intact left arm. She thinks of Phi and his eyes that look old and tired and where is the sweet innocence that always shone in them?

Velvet sits down, slowly.

“I think I should start from the beginning.” Phi says. The place is still dark and he is no longer emanating light, but somehow she can see him perfectly. “What do you remember, Velvet?”

Everything, she thinks, she remembers everything and why wouldn’t she remember—

“I’m sorry,” Phi says interrupting her thoughts “It’s just…it’s been a long time, you know?”

His voice still rings in the high notes of a pre-teen, his face has the chubby roundness of childhood, but he sounds so _different_.

“Has it?” is the only thing that she can say, tightly, her mouth dry.

“Yes,” Phi answers immediately, staring in the distance, at the blackness around them. “Yes, it has.”

Once he begins his tale, he doesn’t stop.  

* * *

Sorey is sat right outside the doors, his back laying against the one he didn’t open. From here, he cannot hear the voices of Maotelus or Velvet, but is not like he needs too. He knows already what Maotelus will say to her, what he will ask of her.

He occupies his time browsing with little mind the Celestial Record. The old, tattered book has somehow survived all this time; Maotelus said it was probably imbued with mana during the purification, just like his clothes and himself, and that’s why it has manage to make it here, after all these years.

He knows the words in the book by heart, could practically rewrite it without having to look at it, could redraw its old, inaccurate maps with his eyes closed.

While his hands pass the pages with familiar, comfortable ease, he remembers the fascination, almost reverence he felt towards the book, so many years ago, when he was a human. He looks within himself for the same feeling, chasing the memory of the endless wonder that used to fill him when he read the book, even when he already knew its every secret.

Unsurprisingly, he finds nothing. He closes it with finality, sighing, deeming his search for old feelings hopeless.

He looks at the sight around him, scanning the old ruins that have become his home for the last months. He knows he will have to leave, eventually, go the world that his human self was so desperate to protect and see what his sacrifice obtained. Maotelus’ domain is still growing, it has yet to reach every corner of the world but most seraphim should already know that the he’s awake.

And for certain seraphim, it also means that Sorey should be awake.

No one has come looking for him and for the time being, he would like it to stay that way.

He gets up. The other’s conversation will probably take all day and he has nothing to occupy himself meanwhile. He has been spending his days talking to Maotelus or exploring around the ruins, never too far away.

They’re relatively close to Elysia and though Sorey doesn’t know if the village is still there, he doesn’t want to risk being seen by someone who might recognize him. In the opposite direction of the seraph town, passing one of the mountains, there’s a small human settlement; Sorey has gone there a few times, trying to figure out the state of the world from there, but the village it’s small and its people doesn’t seem to know about the Throne.

If he gets moving immediate he will be there a little before sunset and be back late at night. Going to the human town is as good distraction as anything, and maybe he will be able to get some clothes for Velvet. If what Maotelus told him about her still holds true, she won’t mind much what he gets her.

* * *

Phi starts with part of the story she knows, of their fight with Artorius and Innominat.  He talks of her sacrifice with great sadness but easy resignation. He then tells her about the Four Elemental Empyreans, about how Innominat being seal away would bring imbalance to the natural forces of the world, about how they needed another one to fill his place.

She doesn’t say anything, her questions and her reproaches getting caught in her throat, putting the pieces together and…

 “And I did live, Velvet,” he says, like he can tell what she’s thinking, “I lived to watch over the world, to learn about the people that inhabit it, to see them grow, and learn or to see them fall…and I chose it on my own.”

Maybe it isn’t really there and Velvet is hearing things, but there’s something like recrimination in his words. Her decision hurt him greatly, she knows, and it was probably selfish of her to choose her own, personal way of punishment, to choose her self-loathing over the possibility of living with him, with all of them.

But everything she did has always been selfish, and even now she can’t bring herself to regret doing as she did.

And so, she can’t bring herself to recriminate him, either.  

“Why am I here?” she asks then.

Phi nods.

“We’ll get to that, you need to know certain things before.”

He continues to tell her about what happened after their final battle but, she notices, he leaves out whatever came to be of their companions. Instead, he speaks of the world, of the changes that came to be when he took the place of the Fifth Empyrean and gave the Sacred Flame to the world.

Phi talks to her about centuries and centuries of history that he has seen unravel before him. History doesn’t know about Velvet Crowe, but it held the name of The Lord of Calamity and passed it down with warning; Artorius, the Abbey and their goals are also buried under the years and what remains of them are half assessed truths and the title of the Shepherd, passed down with reverence.

He explains the system that got implanted then, about the Shepherd and their squires, the Prime lord and their sub lords; about how when a daemon deserving of the title Lord of Calamity, the Shepherd appear to vanquish it. It was a cycle, he said, since malevolence was inexhaustible but so was humanity’s hope.

He also tells her about how, eventually, something went wrong. He doesn’t give her much details about how or why, but he got tainted with malevolence and couldn’t give his blessing to the world, and this was thrown into chaos once more. And Sorey came then, in an age and time when malakhim were but a legend, the Shepherd a fairies’ tale.

“He slept too,” Phi says looking at her “for a very long time, serving as my vessel so I could be purified. He slept for a long time and in fact he just woke up, just like you.”

Velvet stares at him for a long time. She doesn’t know how much time they have been here, sitting in the dark, but she cannot longer see the light coming from the door. It’s a good story, this tale he has tell her, but she still doesn’t believe him at all. She closes and open her left hand, feeling her body: she doesn’t feel the hunger she felt as a therion, and her arm doesn’t transform when he tells her to.

“Why am I here?” She asks him, closing her eyes tightly “How am I here?”

Even at the end of her journey, when she had come to terms with herself and her goals, when she found peace on her revenge, Velvet still felt desperate most of the time. There was, in the depths of her heart, a lingering feeling of desolation, rage, desperation, of all the emotions that ultimately made her a daemon. Rokurou was the same, he had told her about it one of their first nights together after they escaped Titania; she hadn’t told him of her own emotions back then, but he hadn’t need her to talk, anyway.

If she focused on those feelings she would start generating more malevolence and it was easy to get lost in them.

Now, when she looks for them, she doesn’t find them. Or at least, not in the way she remembers it; they used to consume her, to make her physically hurt, they made her head spin and her heart bleed and now…they’re there, still, but they’re as the coals of a bonfire in the early morning, burning barely and waiting patiently for her to put them finally out.

“What am I?” She hears herself say, hidden behind the dark of his eyelids.

“Being honest…I’m not so sure how you’re here” Phi decides to say after a solemn pause. “When I regain conscious of myself, a little before the purification was over, I felt a change on Innominat. Since we are basically the same being, I think he was corrupted with malevolence too and when I was purified so was him…and for some reason, we end up together. He is inside me, as we speak.”

Velvet opens her eyes and looks at him. Phi has a serious look on his face, the concentration on his features could be adorable if it wasn’t for the grave, old look of his eyes.

“Is he…?” She’s not sure what she’s asking, so she silences herself.

“He wasn’t your brother, Velvet he—”

“I know,” she interrupts him “Laphi was dead…he is dead.” It doesn’t weigh as heavy on her heart as it should and she wonders why.

She knew Innominat was not her brother, despite wearing his face and calling her sister and crying on her shoulder like Laphi used too. At the end of the day Innominat was an ancient deity that held inside him the soul of Laphicet Crowe, and she could’ve been many things but she was never delusional enough to believe that he was, truly, her Laphi.

“Is he sleep?” She questions then “Is Innominat sleep inside you or…?”

“I believe he isn’t a separate being for me anymore, in the same way I would’ve just fuel his power had he devoured me, now he’s just a fraction of mine.”

Velvet nods.

“But then how I…?”

“I don’t know for sure,” Phi says with a sigh “My guess is that you got purified too, and were brought back here but I don’t know how or why.”

He stays silent for a moment and then, in a very quiet, child-like voice, he says:

“I don’t know why…but you’re here, Velvet. You’re here.”

She is.

* * *

When Sorey comes back from his little errand, a child is waiting for him at the edge of the innumerable stairs outside the Throne. He hasn’t see him before but recognizes him as Maotelus all the same, his energy unmistakable after spending so many years as his vessel.

Maotelus is sitting at the steps, looking at the stars with an unreadable expression on his too young face.

“Sorey.” He greets him while Sorey climbs the stairs. He answers with a nod.

“I went to the human village not far from here.” Sorey explains “I went to get some clothes for Velvet…where is she?”

“She is inside, sleeping. All of this has been a real shock for her.”

He doesn’t say anything after that but Sorey has the impression he’s not done talking, so he sits beside him and looks at the firmament too. It’s a nice, fresh night with a cloudless sky.

“She cannot stay here,” Maotelus says after some time, and then he looks at Sorey “and you can’t, either.”

“Why not?” is the first thing that comes to his mouth.

Maotelus doesn’t grace him with an answer, because Sorey already knows.

“You won’t be alone, at the very least.” Maotelus says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are like a hundred berseria wips in my folder an yet here i am, this was also supposed to be a one-shot but HEY
> 
> idk people, this idea was kind of hauting me and i decided to give it a shot, i wont promise constante updates or anything but ill try.
> 
> writing Velvet is hard as fuck. Sorey probably appears ooc, there's a reason for that, that i will explore on the subsequents chapters and Laphicet has kinda of a different personality too bc well, he got old lol other characters will make an appearece and ill add their tags as we go.
> 
> this is un-betad like everything i post here, let me know if you see some atrocious mistake
> 
> i hope you have enjoyed this first chapter
> 
> Thanks for reading, every comment will be appreciate! <3


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look! an update! 
> 
> i saw this fanart and it inspired me so go look at it: http://littlechisa.tumblr.com/post/161368604086/a-tales-of-emotion-versus-reason
> 
> I hope you like this chapter :3

Velvet slept sat on the ground, with her back against the wall behind the throne, her arms wrapped around her knees and her head nested between them. When her eyes fluttered open she didn’t move, her gaze transfixed on her lap.

Velvet slept sat on the ground, with her back against the wall behind the throne, her arms wrapped around her knees and her head nested between them. When her eyes fluttered open she didn’t move, her gaze transfixed on her lap.

She had hope to go to sleep and not wake up, thought that maybe all of this was but a dream she had while sleeping alongside Innominat, but it wasn’t. It isn’t.

She takes her time getting up, listening attentively to her surroundings, but it seems she’s alone at the moment.

The place feels a little less mystic that it felt yesterday, and when she looks at the door notices that someone has opened it completely allowing the light of the day illuminate all the obscure corners of the temple. She also sees that someone has brought her breakfast, some peaches, and a new set of clothes neatly folded in the ground beside her.

She puts them on without much thought. They’re simple but well done garments, a pair of black pants, a pair of boots, a red buttoned shirt and a black cloak that reminds her of the one she used to wear, before.

 _Before_. There wasn’t supposed to be a before or an after, not for her. She suddenly has them, laying with clarity in front of her, and she doesn’t know what to do with them.

She’s still a little unsure of the veracity of all this, if she’s honest. She has been trick too many times with illusions to be wary but at the same time something about this feels unequivocally real. Maybe it’s Phi’s tired eyes, or maybe it’s her lack of daemon arm, or maybe is the malak, Sorey, that seems just as lost as her.

Nevertheless, illusion or not, she has to deal with this.

Once dressed, she reaches for the fruit but her hand stops centimeters away from it. She takes one of the peaches in a slow movement after a second of hesitation. She takes it to her mouth, smells it and parts her lips: she’s hungry, she realizes, but it isn’t the hunger of an inhuman monster.

Velvet gulps and strokes the peach with her lips, afraid of biting into it and finding the sweet flavor of ripped fruit, or the taste of ashes in her mouth: she doesn’t know what outcome scares her the most.

She drops the peach suddenly. She can’t deal with this, not now, so she goes outside, to the day that shines bright and solid over the Throne. The wind blows loudly and removes her long, unkempt hair in an irritating manner. She needs a comb, she thinks, and the thought makes her crack a sad, ironic smile.

“You’re up.” She hears Sorey says and turns to look at him, that it’s walking in her direction.

“Thanks.” Velvet says, extending the white cloak back to him “I assume you were the one that got me this, too.” She points at her clothes.

“Yes,” Sorey answers, putting his cloak back on “I hope they’re to your liking.”

“The shoes are a little big, but they’ll do. Thank you.” She repeats.

Sorey smiles at her. He seems to want to appear calm, Velvet notices, but he’s standing a little too stiff and is looking at her with instance, like waiting for something.

“Where is Laphicet?” She asks, observing him intently.

“Laphicet?” He says in return “You mean Maotelus? He’s…around here, I’m not so sure, he usually doesn’t take physical form, but he never leaves the Throne.”

“I see.” Sorey is still looking kind of nervous and it’s putting her on edge too. “Do you need something?” She asks, a little too roughly.

“I— No! I mean…” He stumbles on his words and decides to take a big breath before continuing “I was just wondering if…if Maotelus told you something?”

Velvet stares at him.

“He told me many things.”

“Of course, of course,” he says smiling sheepishly and laughing a hollow, anxious laugh “I mean, something about me.”

“He said you used to be a Shepherd and that you’re the one that purified him…You’re the hero of the world, apparently.”

All traces of smiles, nervous or not, leave Sorey’s face and in its place comes a dark expression that Velvet doesn’t recognize at all.

Suddenly despondent, he says:

“I’m not a hero.”

According to what Phi said, he is. He sacrificed himself, his whole life was put on hold for the possibility of saving the world, a cruel, divided world that was never going to repay him; it’s the most heroic thing Velvet has ever heard of, not even the knights and princes of old, childhood stories compare to that selflessness.  But Sorey says it with such fatality that Velvet cannot bring herself to disagree. It’s not like it’s her business, anyway.

“His words, not mine.” Velvet says. Sorey smiles once again.

“Sorry, just…waking up after so much time, I’m not myself yet, you know?”

Yeah, she thinks, feeling her very human body, she can relate. She simply nods at him and he seems to catch her meaning.

“But…didn’t he tell you anything else?”

“Why don’t you tell me what he should’ve or shouldn’t have told me about you?” She decides to say instead, seeing how he’s just beating around the bush.

“Ahh…well, you see…” Sorey begins, his eyes deviating to the left “Maotelus says I can’t stay here, he wants me to go and see the world, you know? And I…well…I was wondering if he told you anything about it.”

Something it’s off and Velvet thinks that’s not really what he wanted to know, but she doesn’t know him or his circumstances well enough to make a guess, so what he says will have to do.

“He didn’t mention anything about that.”

“Oh.”

Sorey lets his gaze fall to the ground then and it doesn’t look like he has anything more to add, so Velvet lets him be and walks towards the stairs. She has to jump over some debris to get there, most of the arcs that used to guard the entrance are gone or half overthrown. The steps themselves have suffered damage too and it looks like it would be dangerous to walk in them.

She sits at the edge of the staircase and looks around her. Yesterday the Throne seemed as a vision, unreal and faraway, and while Phi talked to her about years and years of history, she had thought it would all vanish from a moment to another and that she would be left to sleep a dreamless dream for the rest of eternity.

Today it doesn’t look like anything will disappear. The clothes she wears, the stone beneath her, the wind that messes with her hair, everything is palpable and reachable, prove of her situation. In fact, everything feels just as it felt before she went to sleep; for her, the centuries hasn’t really pass, she still remembers her journey and the tragedy that put her there clearly, the memory of her life before and after The Advent is fresh, like it was just yesterday that she entered this same temple with no intentions of coming back.

It had been a long time since she had worried about anything that wasn’t her and her own goals, but the day that their final battle came she did care about some else. She had already dragged Phi and the rest of them into all this disaster, the least she could do, she had thought back then, was to give them another chance. A chance she didn’t deserve and one she couldn’t take, anyway: She was a daemon, what kind of life could await her outside of fighting, devouring?

Today circumstances, however, are full of implications she never thought she would’ve to consider. Velvet looks at her left arm and makes a tight fist: nothing changes, it stays the same white unmarked skin, the unequivocal prove that she’s human. She’s human and there’s no hunger, anger or desperation consuming the depths of her heart or burning her soul.

There’s nothing inside her but the sad, weak echo of everything she has lost: her family, her humanity, her _time_. There’s also a light tremble, a whisper of everything she can have back, now.

The thought perturbs her, because this is not something she’s supposed to have or something she had ever _wanted_. She chose her own path, dug her own grave, set in motion the mechanics of her own doom and she did so fully aware of what she was doing. There wasn’t an instant when she had thought of having a happy ending, of what she would do after getting her revenge because there wouldn’t be an after.

But there _is_ an after and the possibilities running in her head make her dizzy.

She lets herself fall on her back and watches the lazy clouds transit the sky, which hasn’t seem to change at all in millennia, and finds something akin to comfort in that.

* * *

Sorey watches Velvet go sit at the edge of the stairs and for a second considers going after her and tell her what is really on his mind. He spends too much time pondering it and after a while she lays on her back and he thinks it would be better to don’t bother her at the moment.

Maotelus told him the story of how he end up becoming the Fifth Empyrean, which was also the story of the first Shepherd and the first Lord of Calamity. He knows who Velvet was, why she acted like she did and how she ended up here, with him.

He’s still not so sure what to make of her or how to approach her, so far she has been polite and has remain calm in despite of her situation, but Sorey can’t stop thinking about everything that Maotelus told him, how she killed without hesitation if it fitted her needs, how she used people as mere tools to her purposes, how she could snap with little provocation…Sorey is not sure what to think of all of it, because Maotelus told him too about her tragedy, about how everything she loved was stripped form her and how utterly broken she was, so much she thought herself without repair.

He thinks he knows what his human self would’ve thought of her. When he was human murder disgust him even though he eventually deemed it necessary, his human self would’ve never approve of her actions and would’ve try to purified her or at the very least changer her way of thinking, try to show her there was another way.

But that’s what human Sorey would’ve think, done, he would’ve go to her with a smile and open arms, offer an ear to hear, a shoulder to lean on. He thinks that’s what he should do then, since it what he would’ve done, but something stops him dead on his tracks, something doesn’t allow such ideas to even form completely in his head and so he just watches and wonders.

After spending an inappropriate amount of time looking at her, Sorey turns and heads into the Throne. Maotelus hasn’t make an appearance since last night and thought Sorey knows he is here, he doesn’t think the Empyrean will show up anytime soon.

Maotelus insists that Sorey must go, that he can’t simply chose to hide here forever, that he needs to go and see the world, that he needs to go and face the _truth_.

Sorey’s answer is still a cheeky “Why not?” He literally has no need to go anywhere and this place, free of malevolence, is a very good place to make his home now that he’s a seraph. He has told this to Maotelus, but the old seraph meets his retorts with disapproving silence every time.

Because, even if all the reasons Sorey can argue to stay here for the rest of eternity, or at least a few centuries, are valid and logic, he understands what Maotelus says and he knows him to be right.

He needs to go out, face the world and see what truth he finds there.

And even though he agrees to some measure to Maotelus’ words, he cannot say the same for his methods.

Velvet can’t stay here, either, and it’s more understandable that she, as a human, has to go. But Maotelus asked or, more accurately, demand him to go with her.

According to Maotelus is a great opportunity for both of them, so they wouldn’t have to face this new reality on their own. The idea is ludicrous at the very least because what if Velvet doesn’t want company? Or what if she doesn’t want to get away from here? What if she kills him in his sleep? If she’s half of what Maotelus says she was, the possibility is on the table and Sorey would rather have his head over his shoulders, thank you very much.

When he gets to the back of throne room, Sorey notices the peaches he brought for her are still in the ground, intact. He wonders why she didn’t eat them since she must be hungry.

He sits on the ground cross-legged and takes one of them. He ponders the idea of eating it. He hasn’t eat anything since he woke up, he’s a seraph and he doesn’t really need it but now that he holds the peach in his hand, memories of what it used to be to eat fruit come flashing to him: the juice slipping from the corners of his mouth, his teeth easily tearing the soft pulp, the sweet flavor dancing on his tongue.

It seems like eating is a pleasant experience, so he takes the peach to his mouth and opens it, ready to take a bite, but he remembers how much his human-self enjoyed to eat and something snaps inside of him and he drops the peach.

Suddenly, he doesn’t want to try to eat ever again.

He lays on his back and looks at the tall, dark ceiling of the Throne, let’s himself get lost in its emptiness, and finds something akin to comfort in it.

* * *

Velvet thinks there should’ve been a time, if brief, in which she was a curious little girl. Children in general are curious, eager to know the world around them, they are delighted when then find something new and for them everything is exciting, a challenge, an adventure.

If she ever was like that she doesn’t remember it at all. She doesn’t remember a time in which the idea of going out and explore her surroundings filled her with thrill, instead, when she thinks of such childhood experiences Laphi comes to her mind. Laphi, that was even hungrier for knowledge than most kids and that loved worrying her sick with his escapades to go out there and learn.

Her parents died when Velvet was still very little so when Celica took the role of their caretaker and started working to support them, Velvet was the one that had to take care of Laphi and oh, how much it cost her.

Childhood wasn’t something Velvet really had. For early on she took it on herself to do the housework, to cook and clean and such, so Celica wouldn’t have to do more than she already did, and when Arthur came into their lives she learned from him how to hunt and how to fight so she could be useful in the house and Laphi, sickly, little Laphi wouldn’t have to worry about anything.

Then Celica died and the responsibility fell even heavier on her shoulders. She had little time to be a child, even less to be a teen.

The world outside, for her, was full of dangers and injustices, of cruel realities that she needed to protect her brother from. For Laphi the world was a treasure chest waiting to be open.

Traversing the world in her journey was one of the cruelest ironies she had to live. How bitter it was to have to possibility of sailing the seas, hiking the mountains and walking the roads when she never hope for anything similar and her dead brother wanted nothing more.

Today, the irony tastes a little less bitter.

She didn’t have anything better to do so she decided to walk around and, by the gods, _explore_ a little. Laphi would’ve love the Empyrean’s Throne with his magnificent architecture, its ancient engraves and its hidden meanings. The only thing she loves about it is that the cursed place is fallen to pieces, just like everything it used to represent should.

Contrary to the innumerable chambers that she got lost in for at least two hours, the surroundings of the Throne aren’t remarkable at all. She wonders briefly from where Sorey got the peaches, since there’s little to none vegetation in the barren hills around the Throne, even less a peach tree.

She can tell that this place, despite its significance, is cut out of the outside world and that nothing here has been touch by the hand of man in a very, very long time. The animals she has seen, goats mostly, are but a little wary of her and seemed to disregard her quickly when they decided she didn’t pose a threat. She guesses humans don’t come here or the animals would be scare of her.

Talking about humans, she’s hungry and it’s getting harder to ignore as the time passes. When she was a therion she was always hungry but she knew that if she didn’t eat, normal food or malevolence, she wouldn’t die or feel especially weak. Now, however, she’s starting to feel a little dizzy, lightheaded and the only explanation she finds is her lack of nourishment; walking for a few hours under the sun probably isn’t helping her case either.

The sun is already setting and she plans to return to the interior of the Throne, to face her pending battle with the peaches she left there to rot, but just a few steps into the never ending staircase and her head is spinning. Her vision is stained with bright points of light and everything starts getting blurry; the ground under her moves and she takes a hand to her forehead, trying to get a hold of herself.

Before she ultimately faints, she thinks of all the times that Laphi passed out over his books or halfway to the cape and the irony is, still, not as bitter as it should be.

“Velvet!” She hears someone, a man, yelling, but doesn’t have time to recognize the voice.

“Velvet!” She hear closer and thinks of Laphi calling her name.

“Vel—!” She faints.

* * *

This is the third time in two days that Velvet doesn’t wake up where she would expect to.

When she comes to, she realizes someone has taken her up the stairs, just outside the Throne, and that has delicately position her laying over her left side, with a piece of rubble as a very uncomfortable pillow under her head.

Her eyes are filled with the vision of the dancing flames of a bonfire and her ears with the sound of its crackle. At the other side of the fire she distinguishes a pair of shoes and when it all comes into focus she sees Sorey, sitting in front of her and keeping watch over her sleep.

Velvet gets up slowly, careful of the world vanishing again, but she manages to get in a sitting position without trouble. Not far from the bonfire, she notices, are the peaches she refused to eat.

“How are you feeling?” Sorey asks without preambles, his voice gentle.

“Fine.” She says with her mouth dry “How much time I was out?”

“An hour at most. I thought of waking you up with some lighting but I thought you needed the rest.”

It’s a good thing he decided against that idea, she muses, because waking up like that sound horrible.  

They stay silent after that. Sorey doesn’t offer her the peaches and she doesn’t take them.

Between his hands he’s holding an old tattered book that he seems to carry around like it is holy word, but he doesn’t seem to have intentions of open it. Now that his emerald eyes are not directed at her, his gaze seems hard and troubled, it’s the same looks she has seen in flashes before and she wonders if he will tell her what he couldn’t earlier today.

In any case, she’s not gonna ask him about it because it’s not her goddamn business. Instead, she concentrates on other thoughts.

She hasn’t seen Phi since yesterday and she would like to speak to him again, there’s still a lot of questions he needs to answers, because even though he has already told her a lot, he spoke merely of generalities and she needs specifics. She has had all the day to think about what to ask him and whatever came to be of their friends is, surprisingly, the most pressing matter.

 “Velvet,” Sorey calls her before she can continue with her train of thought “there’s something I would like to discuss with you.”

He’s still looking into the fire and the somber look in his eyes hasn’t disappear, if anything it has deepen, and she thinks that it’s a very fortunate thing for him that malakhim don’t produce malevolence.

“You finally gonna spit it out?” She asks.

“Yes.” It’s his immediate response “You see, I think Maotelus is not going to come out for a while.”

“How so?” Velvet says, sharping her eyes.

Sorey licks his lips and still refuses to look at her.

“Well…how do I put it?” he asks of himself with resignation “He can be very stubborn and he’s not exactly subtle about his intents.”

Which answers nothing, Velvet thinks, but that at least sounds very much like Phi, he did learn the worse from them.

“So?”

“So…before you woke up, he wanted me to get away, go out there and see the world since…” He interrupts himself and gulps “, since, well, there are answers that I won’t find sitting here. But when he felt that you were waking up Maotelus asked me to stay around for it.” He falls silent.

“SO?” Velvet presses, a little annoyed with his indecision “Why did he ask you to stay if he was fed up with you?”

Sorey looks at her then, a slight look of indignation in his eyes like he hadn’t consider the idea that Maotelus would want him away for personal reasons.   

“Because” Sorey continues without dropping her gaze “, he wanted me to take you with me.”

“What do you mean—?”

“Maotelus,” Sorey interrupts her, raising his voice a little “Maotelus says that you can’t stay here, that just like me you need to go out and see the world, he said, and I quote, ‘She needs to make use of her second chance’.”

Velvet has a dumbfounded expression on her face and it takes her a while to process what she just heard. They’re a lot of emotions within her competing to get the spotlight but at the end, rage wins the battle. 

“What?” She says, in a quiet but dangerous voice and something about her face must look really scary because Sorey backs down “And why he doesn’t come out and says so himself?”

“I…” Sorey’s voice trembles a little. Velvet might not be the Lord of Calamity anymore, not even a hellion, but the white rage showing on her features is prove enough that she _was_. “I don’t know. How I said, he can be very stubborn.”

“So that’s how it is.” Velvet says and gets up in a quick movement that has Sorey twitching in his place. “That’s how it is!” She yells at open doors of the Throne “Laphicet!”

She can’t believe that he’s doing this, that he’s telling her what she _needs_ to do, like he knows! A few centuries being a damn deity and he suddenly feels with the right to tell her what to do.

“Laphicet, answer me!” She demands at the still darkness of the temple “Come and tell it to my face! Laphicet!”

Not too far away Sorey gets up too and is looking at her with a wary expression, both confused and scared of her reaction.

There’s no response and knowing that Phi must be here and he’s choosing to ignore her infuriates her. How dare he tell her what she needs to do, shove her aside like this, ask this malak to be her companion, she doesn’t understand.

“What happened to choosing your life on your own?!” She questions now, trying to make him come out, rising her arms in challenge “What happened to all that Eizen taught you?!”

Sorey replaces his fearful expression for an intrigued one at the mention of that name.

“Are you gonna tell me what to do?!” She asks, her throat tearing for all her yelling “Is that what you’re doing?! Tell me what do with my ‘second chance’?! Well! I don’t want it!”

 _I know_.

“And if I chose to starve myself to dead here you can’t do nothing about it!”

 _I know_.

“I didn’t ask to wake up, Laphicet!”

 _I know_.

“I DON’T WANT THIS!”

_I know, because you don’t deserve it, don’t you Velvet?_

Laphicet’s voice resounds in her head, silencing her abruptly.

It’s truth. She doesn’t deserve to be here, that’s what she has been thinking all day. Waking up today, so many years after all she did, being human again…it’s _too_ perfect. No one knows of her, history doesn’t remember her as the daemon lord that destroyed towns, that stole, that killed. No one remains that can hold her accountable for all her crimes and the world is well and good, there’s no need for her to go back to sleep, there’s nothing she has to do but to live.   

She can go, settle somewhere, fall in love, have a family and have the normal, mediocre life she always wanted and she…she just _can’t_.

The taste of blood still lingers in her mouth, the lives she took will forever haunt her, and the weight of her crimes will never leave her.

 _I know_. _And I know I can’t stop you for doing what you want in spite of my approval or lack of it._

_I’ll see you kill yourself if that’s what you wish or I’ll see you form a new life._

_I’ll watch over you, whatever you chose. I haven’t forget what Eizen told me but there’s nothing I have ever wanted more than see you happy._

_I couldn’t make you happy before. I can’t make you happy now. I’ve got only wishful thinking._

“Phi…” Velvet whispers, her arms falling to her sides, defeated.

_If you think you don’t deserve this then you don’t. But you have already live through so much you didn’t deserve, Velvet, I don’t see the difference on living through this too._

And if there’s something Velvet knows how to do is how to live through adversity. Celica raised her like that.

She feels like she’s gonna faint again but she doesn’t.

She looks at ground between her feet, waiting for Phi to speak again but he doesn’t.

She waits for the world to end, so she doesn’t have to make this choice, but it doesn’t.

She waits for reality to deconstruct and show her that this is, indeed, a dream she’s having in her eternal sleep, but it doesn’t.

She waits and crackle of the bonfire grounds her to the here and now. She feels her stomach growl, begging her for food, and remembers all she said to Phi about being alive.

She turns, startling Sorey, and goes for one of the peaches in the floor. She looks at it with fury and, without stopping to think about it, takes a big bite.

It tastes delightful and she cries.

* * *

Sorey watches in bewilderment how Velvet starts to eat the scattered peaches, with the fury of a hungry wolf and the tears of a lost child.

He can only guess Maotelus did answer her and whatever he told her has set into motion something inside of her.

There’s a sort of raw power in what she does, the way her teeth tear the soft fruit, how she chews with unnecessary strength and swallows her mouthfuls forcefully, like the act of eating is a fight she’s having against an enemy he cannot see.

It looks like she’s winning and Sorey, for a fleeting moment, wishes for strength like that.

He watches over her all the while, until the last peach has been eaten and the seeds are laying naked on the ground. He watches her clean her mouth with one sleeve uncaring of her clothes, he watches her sit slowly and follows her movements until the point where their eyes lock.

Velvet returns his stare with an unwavering gaze that, despite what just happened, it’s light.

Sorey looks at her and wishes for will power like that.

“Don’t you have something to say to him too?” She says with an indecipherable voice.

No. Yes. He’s not sure. Maotelus already knows what worries him, what has been eating his mind since the moment he woke up and he already told Sorey what he thinks of it. He can’t imagine what else is there to say.

“What…?” He starts and hates the way his voice falters like he’s afraid of…of _something_. “What is what Eizen taught to Maotelus?” is what he decides to say.

Velvet frowns and spends a long time considering her answer.

“Many things.” She says after a while “Eizen liked to teach and Laphicet liked to learn.” She makes a pause and he holds her gaze, pressing for the real answer “But I think the most important lesson Phi learned from him, was to steer the wheel of his own ship.”

Sorey looks at her in confusion. She groans.

“It basically means to take control of your own life, to live whatever way you want because you chose to.”

It sounds a little contradictory with Maotelus insistence on telling him what to do. He ponders the words for a long while and Velvet seems to be doing the same, letting her gaze fall into the crackling fire.

He wants to stay here, Sorey thinks, he wants to stay here hidden away from the world and from everyone that may still recognize him. He’s still holding the Celestial Record, anchored to it almost, and the familiar tact of its worn out cover doesn’t comfort him like it used to, so many years ago.

He wants to stay here to don’t face the truth, whatever it may be, but at the same time he wants to run away. The book in his hands, the vision of the Throne, the sword at his hip, the cloak on his back, all of it hangs so heavily over him, they’re the echoes of the life he used to have, of the decisions he used to make, they’re the proof that he was once Shepherd Sorey, that once he saved the world, that once he _was_ and now…

“It also means…” Velvet says suddenly, very quietly and more for herself than him, “it also means to don’t let old ghosts dictate you.”

Sorey tears his eyes from her and blinks away the tears that threaten to flow. That’s what he wants the most, what he yearns the most: to be free from the past. 

Probably Velvet wants that too, even if she says she doesn’t.

“Shall we go then?” Sorey finds himself asking, without really expecting an answer.

“Where?” Velvet whispers.

Sorey doesn’t know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, well, this is how the second chapter goes i hope you guys enjoyed it! also i was watching a playthrough of zestiria final battle to refresh my memory and i just noticed that the Throne got fucking destroyed in thta fight but let's ignore that :D lmao
> 
> Thanks for reading, every comment will be appreciate! <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here's the third chapter i hope you like it~

“Maotelus?” Sorey calls quietly, tentatively in the dark.

He’s sitting outside the Throne, his back against some debris, his knees close to his chest and his hands resting over them. At his left Velvet is sleeping and despite how exhausted she was after her earlier outburst she’s chose to sleep in the most uncomfortable position he has seen, sitting like she would need to get up at any moment and for how she twitches when the wind picks up he can tell her sleep is light.

He tries calling the name of the Empyrean once more but Maotelus doesn’t answer. Sorey sighs audibly and Velvet stirs a little.

There’s nothing here beside the ruins of this old temple and them. The light of the bonfire illuminates with hazy orange a few meters around them, but everything beyond its reach it’s pitch black. This certainly isn’t a place to live, he thinks.

Since Velvet went to sleep Sorey has been thinking about what they should, what he should do. He thinks Velvet has already decide what to do for now on, but he still has doubts.

Out there, beyond the darkness that engulfs the ruins and beyond the mountains and beyond the small human village, is the world he helped to preserve, the one he sacrificed himself for. Or, more accurately, the one he remembers sacrificing himself for.

All his memories from before going to sleep are clear in his mind. He remembers his childhood alongside Mikleo in Elysia, the way they would explore ruins and fill their nights with stories of what they would do when they grew up. He remembers believing the Celestial Record’s every word and dreaming of being an explorer. He remembers meeting Alisha, becoming the Shepherd and all the friends he made along his journey. It was a pretty marvelous journey, full of joy and sadness, of tragedies and miracles, it made him a better person, it taught him so much…

He wonders where all that personal growing went, where are the teachings being the Shepherd left him, where is the will and the passion and the entirety of character that he felt so strongly when he killed Heldalf and became Maotelus’ vessel.

He remembers them but he doesn’t feel them and he thinks he knows why. But the answer he has found scares him greatly and he’s afraid, so very afraid of going out there, meeting everyone that is waiting for him and confirming his suspicions.

He’s so afraid, specially, of encountering Mikleo. Promises were made back then, silent vows of loyalty and love: he remembers them, every word told and not said, every gaze exchanged, every _touch_.

Sorey remembers everything and feels nothing.

“Maotelus,” he calls again, quiet and desperate, “Maotelus what should I do?”

But Maotelus remains silent like a tomb, he has nothing to say to him anymore. He won’t tell him to go and he won’t recriminate him for staying so Sorey has got only himself to decide.

He wants to be a coward, in all honestly, be a coward and hide here until the end of times but the idea doesn’t sit right with him either. He owes his old friends, he owes Mikleo.

Sorey gets up as silently as possibly not wanting to disturb Velvet. He looks at her and ponders the idea of sleeping too, but as a seraph he doesn’t need to and he hasn’t done anything physically extenuating that would prompt him to sleep so he just stays there, looking at her.

He remembers that when he was a child he would sometimes try to stay awake all night alongside Mikleo, thinking it was great not having to sleep and wanting to watch the stars all night with his friend. Mikleo would tease him about it but, eventually, Mikleo was the one that learned to sleep at night, adopting the same cycles Sorey had so there was not a moment in when they weren’t together.

They would make themselves comfortable in Sorey’s bed, hide under the covers with a lamp and decipher the Celestial Record between giggles of imaginary adventures. They would fall sleep curled up against each other, and when morning came they would wake up tangled in a mess of covers and limbs.

Thinking about it makes a sensation of warm peacefulness wash over him, but he feels it doesn’t belong to him and that he shouldn’t reminiscence, find comfort on those feelings.

But his or not, those mornings are faraway and today he feels nothing but incertitude, in the middle of the dark night. So he makes a decision and waits for the sun to come, both expecting and dreading dawn.

* * *

The first rays of sunshine fall on Velvet’s face, impertinent and uncaring of perturbing her sleep. The hot rays make her sweat slightly and while she’s drifting between the realm of dreams and the world of the awake, an old memory of something similar comes to her.

Sometimes she would go to spend the night at Niko’s house. Velvet would go a little before sunset to have dinner with Niko’s family and then they would bake cookies to snack later at night; they would do each other’s hair and Niko would insist on doing Velvet’s make up and they would dress up with the old clothes of Niko’s mother and play pretend. There were even times Orthie and Russ were victims of their owner fashion sense too.

Niko’s bedroom was on the second floor of the house and it had a balcony facing east, and after they were done playing and eating and messing with the dogs, they would take blankets and put them on the balcony and lay there, watching the stars. Sometimes Velvet would share with Niko some story or fact about the sky that Laphi had told her, and sometimes Niko would talk about the things that worry her or Velvet would take a moment to vent and complain about having so much responsibilities.

They were vulnerable moments and one day, late at night when the only light in Aball was the small oil lamp between them, when the moon hanged high and they had ran out of things to say, Niko asked her if she wanted to marry, for real, if Velvet really thought of that for her future.

Velvet had remained silent for a while and then turned to look at her friend, who was laying on her side looking at her with big, unintelligible eyes.

Not really, had been Velvet’s answer, she was too busy taking care of Laphi to worry about that. Why, she had asked Niko.

And Niko had bite her lower lip in the most adorable gesture of hesitation Velvet had seen, and whispered: _nothing_.

It obviously wasn’t nothing but there was something in the way Niko behaved that night that made her doubtful of asking, so she chose to laugh and say:

“But, if you were a boy I think I would marry you.”

Niko had laugh too and told her that, if one of them were a boy, it would obviously be Velvet.  And they fell sleep between giggles of an imaginary life full shenanigans in which Velvet was born a man and ended up marrying Niko.

The next morning Velvet woke up with the impolite sunshine bathing her face, sweating slightly under the hot rays and in her hand, Niko’s hand. She dared not wake her and instead spent minutes looking at her. It was one of the most beautiful, peaceful memories she had and she kept it near to her heart, without really understanding why waking up with Niko like this made her so happy.

It’s weird, how the most trivial things can bring up reminiscences like that. The memory vanishes slowly from her mind like a dream would, and she lets it go while opening her eyes, her hand empty and her heart most definitely, not happy.

But also most definitely not sad, or angry, and she finds herself filled with a quiet, but persistent feeling of unsureness. Everything seemed so _clear_ back then, even when Niko asked her of future plans and Velvet didn’t know what to answer with the uncertainty of Laphi’s sickness hanging in her mind, she still didn’t feel as lost as she does now; and after The Advent…she had never been more sure of anything, revenge had unrevealed a clear, straight path before her and not once she strayed from it.

She gets up slowly and looks around for Sorey, but the malak doesn’t seem to be close by. What she finds instead is breakfast, over a big rock not far from her and the remnants of the bonfire there’s a couple of apples and a worn out metallic jar with water. She goes to them realizing how thirsty she is, and drinks directly from the jar.

She puts the half empty jar aside and sits on the rock, taking one of the apples. It isn’t as good as the peaches were so it probably isn’t apple season, which gives her some idea of what time of the year it is.

Velvet contemplates the thought of trying to talk to Phi again but the more she muses over it, chewing at her food, the more it seems futile. He already said his piece and she was left with the impression that he won’t say anymore on the matter: he will watch her waste her life away here or he will watch her go, the decision ultimately hers the pain or the joy of it, his.

She keeps eating at a slow pace, savoring her food now that she can. She cannot exactly say that she missed tasting food since she rarely stopped to think about it, she didn’t have time to care of such things when her brother was dead and the man that killed him walking free, but now there’s nothing that she needs to do, no place she needs to go, nothing that is more important that living this very moment.

It feels wrong, in a way, to have this for herself.

* * *

After a while, Sorey appears at the stairs. He walks towards her in confident steps, more so than the last two days, but when he arrives at her side he simply says:

“Good morning.” And that’s it.

She offers him the last apple out of mere politeness, she owes him for having these attentions with her but she knows malakhim don’t necessarily eat. He rejects the apple with a smile so she takes a bite of it.

They don’t say nothing for a while both of them occupied on their own thoughts, the wind filling their silence with its blowing.

Velvet drinks the last of the water and then asks:

“Where did you get this stuff?”

Sorey looks at her and seems to need to pulls himself out of his head before answering.

“There’s a small human village not far from here.”

She nods.

“Can humans see you?”

“Only the ones that have strong resonance but I don’t think anyone in that village has it.”

“I see.”

“Have you…” Sorey starts, prompted by her attempt at conversation “Have you thought about what to do, for now on?”

Well, he definitely seems tired of preambles.

“Yes.” Velvet answers quickly “I’ve thought about it.”

“Have you decide on something?”

“Have you?” she asks in return.

Yesterday he appeared very unsure but today he has an air of security about him. She wonders if he talked with Laphicet while she was sleep.

Sorey simply nods at her question and after a moment of delicately choosing his words he continues:

“I’ve decide to leave this place. I wanted to know if you would like to accompany me…in case you decide to leave as well, of course.” He adds hastily.

“I was thinking about leaving too,” she offers “but I didn’t think you’d like my company.”

“Why?” he asks with a furrowed brow.

“You’ve been a little jumpy around me.”

Sorey smiles nervously and adverts his gaze, a little embarrassed at the very true statement. It’s Maotelus’ fault, anyway, he did warn him to be careful around Velvet.

“It’s nothing personal,” he says after a moment “I just…I mean, you were a Lord of Calamity and I…I don’t have a good story with the Lord of Calamity.”

“Fair enough.” She accepts his explanation, makes sense that a former Shepherd would be wary of a former Lord of Calamity “Don’t worry, I’m a very human girl at the moment.”

He grins at her, somehow relieve of having her assurance. He smiles a lot, she notices but his smiles never feel forced or fake, if anything everything about him, his mannerism and his words, appear always sincere. It’s a very strong impression to have of someone after just a few days of knowing them.

“Where are you planning to go?” Velvet questions after a while.

“I…well, I’m not sure, I was thinking I should go find my old companions but I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“Do you have any idea of where the nearest city would be?” Velvet thinks she should probably start for learning the state of the world, get used to it and after that…well, she’ll see.

“Kind of.” Sorey says and takes out the Celestial Record.

He browses through the book and quickly finds what he’s looking for. He uses the rock in which Velvet is sitting as an improvised table and opens the book wide. It’s a map but there’s nothing in it Velvet recognize.

So, awaking so abruptly the Four Elemental Empyreans really had its tool on the geography, she thinks. When Laphicet told her the shape of the world had changed she didn’t imagine how much.

“We should be around here,” Sorey starts to explain, pointing at the map “and around here it should be the city of Ladylake.”

Velvet observes the space between the two places he marked, they don’t look exactly close.

“But,” Sorey continues with his eyes on the book “this map was already outdated and inaccurate when I was the Shepherd, we can’t really trust it.”

“It’s better than nothing.” Velvet points out, very used to having to make do with whatever is available “What route would you suggest to the city?”

Sorey takes a little musing his answer.

“We would’ve to go the village that it’s just passing these mountains, around here and then go east.”

“Then it’s settle. How much will it take us to reach the village?”

“What?” Sorey says with surprise “You mean you’re coming with me?”

“Didn’t you ask me to?”

“Of course!” Sorey exclaims with a big smile “Of course, it’s better to travel with company.”

Yeah, Velvet agrees, thinking of the days at the Van Eltia, it sure is. Sorey also seems to get lost in his memories for a moment, his eyes at the map without really looking at it. He doesn’t look like whatever memories he’s having are cause of comfort, however, so she speaks:

“How long to the village?”

He turns at the sound of her voice and blinks a few times.

“Oh, yes, the village…it takes me less than a day to get there.”

“So we can be there by sunset?”

“Yes, if nothing delays us.”

“All right then, so…whenever you’re ready.”

Honestly, none of them will ever be truly ready, but this is one of those things that you can’t think too much, and they have already had their time to ponder.

Velvet is not ready to go and discover that maybe she can find happiness out there, that her crimes and her tragedy can be put behind her, that they can’t cloud her future anymore.

Sorey is not ready to go and discover that the past is no longer, that he is what he is now and not what he was; but he isn’t ready to discover the contrary either, that he is and forever will be what he was.

They aren’t ready for this, but if there’s something they both know how to do is to keep pushing forward and if whatever they find in the horizon is not what they wanted, well, they can still keep going forward.

* * *

Maotelus doesn’t come out to bid them farewell. Velvet would’ve like him to do so, but Laphicet isn’t the child she knew at all anymore and she guesses he must have his reasons, and she can respect that.

She still stands in front of the falling throne, looks at Innominat’s fading symbol that she supposes is his symbol too, and murmurs a short goodbye. There’s not response, not one she can physically see and not one in her mind, but she’s sure he has hear her and that he knows she’s going.

She leaves the throne room with sadness. This is what Laphicet wants of her and she discovers it’s easier to do it if she thinks of doing for him. Maybe, somewhere along her incoming journey, she will be able to say is for herself too.

Sorey also takes a moment to say goodbye. He stands in front of the throne and stays silent for a long while. He thinks he should say something memorable or deep, parting ways with the Empyrean feels like an enormous change after spending a few centuries as his vessel, but nothing really comes to him.

He whispers a short but not dry goodbye. Maotelus is telling him to go, but he isn’t forbidden him for returning here if he wishes so, and Sorey hopes that along his incoming journey he will find something that doesn’t make him want to.

After both of them are done with their goodbyes, they start descending the steps of the Throne in appropriate, respectful silence.

They don’t look back, despite feeling the urge to do so and somehow they find solace of in their mutual struggle.

* * *

It’s noon when Velvet starts feeling the inconveniences of being human again.

While she traveled with her companions stopping to rest was something they did for the human members of the team. She and Rokurou, and maybe Eizen, could’ve probably travel for days without needing a break but Laphicet was a child, Eleanor was bound to her human limitations and Magilou, despite having a lot of stamina for someone so scrawny, liked to complain. A lot. And making a delay on their plans was better than having to listen to Magilou’s whines, that much they have agreed early on.  

Now her stomach is grumbling and her feet hurt, but is not until Sorey, eyeing her with worry, suggests that they take a break that Velvet allows herself to groan and sit on the ground.

They have been walking in silence along the mountain, encountering nothing but the same rocky view. Sorey doesn’t seem to be specially fatigued and while they were walking he moved around the natural obstacles of the foothill with ease, meanwhile Velvet was having problems to adapt to less agile reflexes.

She never thought that she would miss something of being a daemon, but life is full of surprises, and at least the superhuman strength was a welcomed trait.

“I should’ve brought more food.” Sorey comments a little guilty.

“Don’t worry about it,” she says “I just need to rest for a while.”

He nods, but still looks a little dejected. He hadn’t really consider the fact that he was going to travel with a human and had overlooked her needs; he wishes to do something about it, because she’s probably hungry and thirsty for walking non-stop all morning.

“I’ll go get some water,” he says after a moment, extending his hand for her to give him the old jar that she was smart enough to bring with them “there’s stream not far from here.”

She considers going with him but she remembers how she passed out yesterday and decides against it, not wanting to be even more of a bother.

“Thank you,” she says passing him the jar.

“I’ll be back in a minute.”

With that he’s off, going back from where they came from but soon deviates from the path to the Throne.

Velvet watches him go for a moment and then decides to make herself comfortable while she waits, putting her back against the rocky side of the mountain.

Sorey doesn’t take much to come back and when she hears him coming, Velvet is back on her feet, ready to keep going. He offers the jar that she accepts and also a handful of berries.

“I found these near the stream!” he says enthusiastically while Velvet drinks “I hope they’re good.”

Velvet takes a few and puts them close to her face, examining them with critical eyes.

“They aren’t rip yet.” It’s her final verdict and she drops them unceremoniously.

“What?” Sorey says and looks at the berries in his hand “They can’t be so bad…” he takes his hand closer to his face to look at them too.

“Don’t eat them!” Velvet exclaims “You’ll get sick.”

Sorey is too surprise at her reaction to tell her that the things that make humans sick rarely do so with seraphim, he simply drops the berries too and rises his hand in defense.

“I was just checking.”

“Anyway. Thanks for the water, let’s go.” Velvet says and turns.

Probably, Sorey thinks while they renew their way, she doesn’t realize that she sounded really motherly just now. He smiles, finding it curious and somehow cute, but dares not to say such a thing aloud.

* * *

They stop to rest again at evening, when the sun is just hiding behind the mountains and the temperature starts to go down.  According to Sorey the village isn’t that far away anymore but Velvet doesn’t want to get there in the dark.

“It’ll make them wary,” she explains to him “if we come in the middle of the night and from this side of the town.”

Sorey had told her that the village didn’t seem to have a lot of visitors and that the townspeople didn’t come to this way of the mountain, so Velvet had thought that two strangers, coming in the middle of the night from the side in which there was supposedly nothing wasn’t going to set well with the locals. Aball was like that too, wary of strangers and protective of their people.

“I see, let me put on a fire then.” He says and starts picking the sorry remnants of a nearby, dead tree.

“Won’t it attract animals?” Velvet asks.

“Well, I haven’t been attacked by any animals before.”

“Can animals even see you?”

“Of course they can!” Sorey clarifies “They’re especially perceptive, they can see and feel things humans don’t.”

Velvet nods at his explanation and sees him put together a bunch of branches, a circle of small pebbles around them and point his index finger to them. A small lighting emerges from the tip and it lights the branches.

How convenient, she thinks, to have that sort of power at hand. Magilou could cast fire artes but she would rather watch Rokurou have a fight to death with a pair of rocks trying to light a bonfire than actually help.

Despite how tired the whole trip has made her, Velvet doesn’t feel ready to sleep so she and Sorey sit at each side of the bonfire in pleasant silence. They haven’t speak much through the day a part from the details of getting to the village, they’re still somehow awkward around each other.

Without the blind clarity that her vengeance gave her, Velvet finds out that she can still be interested in other people and being around Sorey and his attentions has gotten her curious. Besides, Phi told her about what he did but like with everything else he was really lax on the details. She would like to ask him about it, about his journey and about his reasons for being so reluctant to leave the Throne, if there is someone out there waiting for him. She would like to know but she also doesn’t want to come out as nosy, with how wary he’s of her he may not like her prying on his business.

For his part, Sorey doesn’t really know how to approach her despite wanting to. He has realize that he has been craving company on these lasts months. Maotelus spoke to him, of course, filled him up on what was going on with the purification processes and all but he wasn’t that great of a company, being an Empyrean there were things he had to do that required time and effort and understandably so wasn’t with him all the time. Maotelus almost seemed afraid of attachment, Sorey would dare to say, but if he was afraid of Sorey becoming too attach to him or the other way around was impossible to say.

That so, Sorey found himself wanting to speak to Velvet in spite of Maotelus warnings of treating her with delicacy. He thinks that’s why he thought of going to the village to get her food and has been, in general, attentive to her needs.

They stay in silence, however, trapped on their own thoughts about how to approach each other and questioning if they should.

Their musing is interrupt, however, when they hear the unmistakable sound of wolves growling nearby. Really nearby.

Sorey turns to look at Velvet, but she’s already on her feet, attentive to their surroundings. Sorey gets up to then, listening to what seems to be some sort of quarrel. The growling gets louder and the sound of something metallic hitting rock intertwines with it.

“Do you have any idea why the townspeople don’t come this way?” Velvet asks, scanning the area.

“I don’t know,” Sorey answers “I didn’t ask.”

Velvet makes a face at his comment but doesn’t say anything else. The growling doesn’t stop and soon they also hear the wolves whimpering and the grunts of something that definitely isn’t a wolf.

Suddenly from the darkness of the mountain the body of dead wolf is thrown in their direction. It passes between them, hits the side of the mountain and then falls on the nearby cliff, taking a few loose rocks with it.

“What in the—?” Sorey starts to say but his words get caught in his throat when he sees the cause of all the commotion.

It’s a cyclopes, welding a big mace and fighting a pack a wolves. The wolves attack it with impetus, but they can’t do much against the mace and for some reason their bites and scratches doesn’t seem to affect the monster.

“It’s a daemon.” Velvet snarls, cursing the fact that she doesn’t have a weapon.

“Wha—what?” Sorey stutters in disbelief. It’ can’t be. It shouldn’t be a hellion, not here so near Maotelus, where his domain is the strongest.

Yet here it is, disturbing the wildlife. They have to do something and quickly, or the malevolence could affect the wolves and then they would really have a problem.

“Let’s run away,” Sorey says, knowing there’s nothing they can do against a hellion.

“Agreed.” Velvet answers, thought she doesn’t seem to really like the idea.

They turn around and start running, but another wolf is thrown at them and this time it hits Sorey in the back, making him fall on his face, near the cliff.

“Sorey!” Velvet exclaims and goes at his side immediately, trying to get off the dead body.

He grunts trying to get on his feet but none of them is strong enough to get rid of the body quickly and the cyclopes has taken notice of them, now that all the wolves are dead or have run away.

He starts approaching them, his steps reverberating heavily behind them.

“C’mon!” Velvet groans, using all her strength to get rid of the wolf “C’mon!”

Velvet is able to move it halfway off Sorey, so he uses his arms to impulse himself and get away from it completely.

She’s breathing heavily and feels the urge to fall on her back and rest, but the cyclopes roars at them and swings his big mace. Velvet dodges it barely, letting it smash on the ground where she stood and Sorey rolls out the way.

“Distract him!” Sorey screams while getting up. She sees him run behind the monster a few meters and then start casting an arte.

Easy for you to say, Velvet thinks. She knows she is at disadvantage and that like a human there’s nothing she can really do, but if she can buy Sorey enough time maybe they’ll be able to get away unscathed.

She picks up a few pieces of the debris the smash of the mace leave behind and faces the daemon that has already pick up his weapon and is ready to attack again.

He gives it a horizontal swing while roaring and Velvets jumps to get out of the way. Once of her feet she throws one rock at him, aiming for his eye and misses, the action only gets the creature angry and he attacks her again, still unaware of Sorey casting.

However, this time when Velvet dodges the mace the cyclopes immediately strikes her with his free hand and sends her flying, hitting the hard wall of the mountain with her back and knocking the air out of her lungs.

Velvet gets up as quickly as she can and tosses more rocks at the daemon. He advances uncaring of them, effectively cornering her between the wall, him and the cliff. He rises the mace up his head to strike once more. Seeing the opening Velvet jumps and throws a roundhouse kick all across the face of the cyclopes, making sure to hit him in the eye.

It takes him by surprise and gives her times to get away from the tight spot. She turns to keep fighting, but when the daemon turns as well he sees Sorey and the bright, crackling mana around him is enough of a warning to what he’s doing and the cyclopes is smart enough to go for him instead.

Velvet sees clearly how Sorey opens his eyes in panic at the approaching threat but he doesn’t stop casting. She runs at his side to aid him and notices the sword at his hip. She curses under her breath, having forgotten of its existence completely, and when she’s near enough she takes it out of its sheath and leaps towards the deamon. Sorey doesn’t notice she took his sword until he sees her attack the hellion with it.

Swords are not her weapon of choice but when she was learning to fight, that’s what Arthur first showed her, so she can handle it, well enough that when she strikes, she cuts the deamon deeply across the chest, making him stagger.

“Get away!” Sorey screams just as she touches the ground and she follows the command without question.

Just when she’s far enough Sorey liberates his arte. A magic circle that cracks with electricity manifests around the deamon and a sword enveloped in lighting appears out of nowhere on top of it; the sword falls forcefully on the deamon, the sound of thunder reverberating as it hits its mark and illuminating the night for a few seconds.

When the light dissipates it shows the cyclopes laying in the dirt, unmoving.

“Is he dead?” Sorey asks out of breath.

“I don’t know,” Velvet answers “but if he’s not, I don’t wanna be here to find out. Let’s get out of here.”

Sorey nods hastily and then both of them run.

* * *

They sprinted down the mountain for a long time and it started to rain while they were getting away, so now they’re looking for a place to cover from it.

Sorey takes her to a cave and tells her that if they cross it they will reach the village, but Velvet still doesn’t want to get there now, so they look for the driest spot and sit down to rest.

“Let’s not light a fire.” Velvet suggests and Sorey gives her a half smile that she cannot see in the middle of the dark.

“I can’t believe there was a hellion here.” Sorey says, his voice echoing in the cave.

“What do you mean? There’s a village here, it was probably a human from there.”

“Well yeah but…I thought because of Maotelus’ domain, they wouldn’t be any here.”

“Does his domain stops daemons from appearing?” She asks, remembering the way Phi’s fire burned malevolence away.

“Not really,” Sorey explains “it’s just makes it more unlikely.”

“Then our cyclopes probably had a really good reason to become a deamon.” Velvet comments.

It takes him a moment to catch her meaning and when he does, he can’t help but feel bad for the hellion and then, bad for her.

“By the way,” Velvet says “you can have your sword back.”

He hears her put it on the ground between them and Sorey reaches for it, feeling Velvet’s hand on the handle, and takes it. He then unties the scabbard at this hip and sheaths the sword.

“Maybe you should keep it,” he says and slips it back to her “I don’t think I will be using it any time soon.”

“Why? Don’t you know how to use it?” She questions but still takes it.

“I know how but…” Sorey’s voice falters in the dark.

He thinks of a faraway memory, of him finding an old rusty sword in the ruins and running back to Elysia, asking someone, he doesn’t know who but probably an earth seraph, to fix it from him. He thinks of him and Mikleo training, teaching themselves to wield their weapons, hurting themselves by accident…the sword, just like his memories of it, seem to belong to someone else, so he sighs deeply and says:

“You’ll need something to protect yourself, that’s all.”

Velvet’s silence at this is unreadable.

“I’m gonna try to get some sleep.” She announces after a while.

“Okay. I’ll keep watch.”

* * *

While the rain falls with all his might on the steep mountain Maotelus, in his dragon form, sits at the edge of the staircase, looking into the distance.

He had seen the sun sink below the mountain line earlier that day, and before that he had seen it descend slowly to the west and before that, he had seen Velvet and Sorey go away.

None of them had turn to look back and he had feel grateful for it, that both of them were able to leave this place outright. This is not place for them, after all, and in the outside world there is a chance for them to find what they need.

Here they would’ve rot in their own disturbed musing and Maotelus wants nothing more but to see them happy and well. Both of them had already sacrifice so much for this world, they deserve any sort of peace they can have.

If he’s honest, having to watch Velvet walk away from him again was painful, maybe that’s why he didn’t show his face to her more than necessary, but it would’ve been even more painful to see her slowly fade away here.

As for Sorey…is thanks to him that he’s here now, why he didn’t become a dragon and he’s the reason Velvet was able to come back, so he hopes too that he’ll have the strength to face his inner demons and find peace.

Maybe, he thinks, they’ll come back one day. Or maybe not. In any case, as an Empyrean he has a duty with the world so he will stay here, until the day he falls into slumber or until he makes another pact with an inappropriate vessel.

He will stay here and meanwhile he stays at the stairs for a long time, looking at the mountains and uncaring of the rain.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know what, looking back into it, idk how i pretened to write this idea as a one-shot but anyway, i won't be writing another action scene hopefuly bc as you can see i pretty much suck at that so cross your fingers
> 
> in this chapter we learned what Sorey's deal is and I hope you like the direction i decided to took with his character bc its the angsty direction and i love that
> 
> i hope you liked this one! Thanks for reading all comments will be appreciate! <3  
>  


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shows up six months later with starbucks*
> 
> what's up fam

 

Because of Velvet’s insistence of making everything to look as unsuspicious as possible, they have to deviate to reach the village. They get out of the cave just a little after dawn and come out in a forest, the vestiges of the rain still showing on it, making his feet stick in the mud while they walk.

She asks Sorey how much they would have to walk to surround the town and came out on its main entrance, and according to his calculations just a few kilometers.

Velvet doesn’t show it but she’s really tired. The fight with the daemon drained her out, and since she hasn’t eaten or drank well these days, her body is demanding her to take proper care of herself. 

Sorey has taken notice of her state but decides to make no comment about it, since she’s making a lot of effort to don’t show it and he doesn’t want to offend her. And besides, he thinks, eyeing her discretely, the townspeople won’t have to be wary of her if she shows up at the edge of collapsing. With that in mind, he disturbs the silence of the forest with a question:

“Have you thought about what you’re gonna say to the villagers?”

“I was hoping that you would let me a hand with that,” she answers, her breath a little ragged “is there another town around here? Or any reason someone would come near this area?”

Sorey makes a pause, thinking. Even before he went to sleep, there wasn’t much going on in this part of the continent, the only habited place in this area was Elysia and then Ladylake, days from here; besides that, the only known place was the Aroundight Forest and it wasn’t a tourist spot in the sightless.

“I’m sorry,” he finally says shaking his head “I’m afraid we’re kinda in the middle of nowhere.”

“Typical,” she says though not especially upset.

“Maybe you could say you’re an explorer…?” she scoffs “Or not.” he finishes.

“I’ll see what I can come up with.”

Velvet has always been a good liar, when she lived with her family in Aball she often had to lie to them, not out of malice or because she was up to no good, but because she did everything in her power to don’t worry them. Arthur usually could tell when she wasn’t telling the truth but he was a special case, her siblings were a lot easier to deceive and so was everyone in the village.

When she started her quest for revenge and had to lie her way through towns and to get information, her skill came quite handy, too.

They don’t speak anymore until they reach the town. Sorey guides them to the right direction, the trees around them become less dense and the ground at their feet starts to show a clear path. Soon they can see houses between the trees and the sounds of nature are replaced with human voices, the bark of some dog, the mooing of the cattle.

She signals him to crouch behind some bushes and they stay for a while observing the town from the distance, they have glimpses of the villagers going on about their business and catch bits of their conversations. It all looks very peaceful.      

“I’ll be right behind you.” Sorey says to her.

Velvet nods. She slowly gets up and gets in the middle of the road that it’s wide enough to show that some carriages should come by here. She walks with confident steps to the main entrance of the town, a simple wooden arc held with two wide posts, noticing there are no guards to speak of.

She knows Sorey is walking at her side but the nearer she gets to the town, the sensation of being alone grows too. She disregards the feeling and keeps walking in stride.

The first person to notice her is a boy. He’s getting water of a well and his firm pulling gets interrupted when he catches sight of her, his mouth slightly agape. She walks in his direction.

“Hey,” Velvet calls once she’s near enough, keeping a good distance between them.

Despite that, the boy eyes her with suspicion and she follows his gaze until it falls on the sword at her hip.

_Fuck_ , she thinks, it never occurred to her that presenting herself with a weapon would be a problem, in her time traveling without one would’ve been the weird thing, with daemons running rampant across the land.

But the lack of walls surrounding the town or guards at the gate should’ve been warning enough that these were, indeed, peaceful times.

Still, who in their right mind travels around without a weapon, daemons or not.  

By this point more townspeople have taken notice of her. Most of them just stand around, interrupting their daily activities to give her a long and curious look, but finally it’s a woman who approaches her.

“Hi, there,” the woman says, not with hostility but no friendly either “is really weird to see outsiders around here, what brings you to this small town?”

Cutting right to the chase, Velvet observes, cursing herself for not taking the sword into account. They’re definitely wary of her.

“Hi,” Velvet answers with a small smile “it’s just, I got lost and I was wondering if I could get some directions.”

The woman looks at her critically, measuring the truth of her words. Velvet hopes that the dirty state of her clothes and her obvious exhaustion will help her convince the woman.

“I see,” the woman says, her tone even and unreadable “where are you heading lass?”

“I...me and my friends were going to Ladylake.” Velvet answers.

“Ladylake?” The woman frowns slightly at this “Well, you’ve got a really long way to go…where are your friends?”

Velvet sighs and looks at the ground, like it weighs on her having to answer that. It’s all part of the act, of course, to look effectively lost. Still, the inquire does make her ask herself about what happened to her friends after fighting Innominat and Artorius and why Phi kept silent about it. It’s not the time to ponder such things, however.

“We were attacked by bandits on our way, I managed to get away but…well, not all of us made it.”            Her gaze is still on the ground but the silence that proceeds to her words is enough to know that she has the villager in her pocket.  

“I see,” the woman says again, her tone softer “have you eaten anything girl? You look pale as a ghost, come with me, I’ll fix you a meal.”

“Thank you,” Velvet says, finally looking up.

The woman signals her to follow her and Velvet does so on stride. While they walk the people look at them with curiosity, some even try to start conversation with the woman, trying to get info on what’s going on, but the woman turns them all down with practiced ease.

They arrive to the woman’s house, a cabin that looks significantly smaller than the ones they have passed, a little at the border of the town.

“My name is Cecily, by the way,” says the woman while she invites Velvet to come in.

“Velvet,” she answers simply.

The house is a small, made up of a big room with no divisions and for the single bed at the back, Velvet assumes the woman lives alone.

Cecily guides her to the kitchen and invites her to take a sit on a small table with four chairs, then goes to the stove and puts a pot on the fire. Velvet watches her in silence as she gets the food ready and Sorey stays up, leaning against the wall and looking outside a window.

Soon enough the smell of homemade food fills the air and Cecily puts in front of her a reeky bowl of meat stew. Velvet almost salivates at the sight of it, not like the fruit Sorey brought had been bad but now that the food is in front of her she realizes how much she needs a good meal.

Her stomach grumbles and she blushes a little.

“C’mon,” Cecily says with a smile “dig in.”

“Thanks for the meal,” Velvet says with a nod, taking the spoon and starting to eat.

Cecily lets her be and goes occupy herself with some housework. Velvet eats enthusiastically, Cecily cooks really well and it’s been forever since the last time she was able to enjoy a good stew, she thinks not even her own food used to taste this good and her mind takes her inevitably to Celica’s cooking.

Velvet takes a moment of contemplation when such thoughts find her, putting her spoon aside and looking at the stew.

“You okay?” Cecily asks her when she notices Velvet’s sudden dismay.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Velvet says, getting out of her daze quickly “it’s just…it’s been a while.”

It has certainly been.

“How long have you been lost?” Cecily questions then, taking a seat across from Velvet.

“Well…” Velvet starts, trying to come up with a plausible answer “just a few days, a week tops.”

“Goodness,” Cecily sighs, frowning with worry “it should’ve been hard.”

“I managed.” It’s all Velvet says before starting to eat again, thinking it will be easier to don’t have to answer her questions if she’s busy chewing.

Cecily just looks at her for a while, still with a judgmental stare but not one as hard as the one she had at the town’s entrance. Velvet eats in silence, taking her time savoring the food.

At the window Sorey is looking outside, apparently disinterested on whatever is happening at the table. His eyes are thoughtful while he observes life unfolding at the other side of the window. There’s some people talking and very obviously pointing at the house, so he supposes everyone must know by now that a stranger is in town.

They didn’t discuss how much time they were going to stay here, Sorey muses, he had assumed they would make a pretty quick visit, just take what they needed and be on their way but he thinks, hearing Velvet and Cecily small exchange, that it may be good for Velvet to stay longer.

She hasn’t been around humans in a while. More importantly she hasn’t been around humans in this way, not being their enemy or a wanted criminal: she’s just a lost girl in the woods.

It may be good for her, to stay and receive the kindness of strangers for a while.

“Someone is coming,” Sorey says suddenly, seeing a man approaching through the window.

Velvet tries very hard and fails miserably to don’t turn at the sound of Sorey’s voice, but her head moves on its own. Cecily follows her gaze to the window where she sees, obviously, nothing, but soon after there’s a pair of knocks on the door.

Cecily gets up to answer the door, and Velvet returns her attention to the quickly disappearing stew and continues eating, giving her back to the door not wanting to interact with more people than necessary. She has made enough of a commotion in town by now, anyway.

“Took you long enough! C’mon in!” Cecily exclaims behind her.

“Thank you,” says the voice of a man “I hope I didn’t’ worry you so much.”

“You did,” says Cecily as she walks around the table and enters Velvet’s line of vision “but the important part is that you’re here now, so sit, you must be hungry.”

The man follows Cecily and then sits across from Velvet. She tries her best to don’t make eye contact, but there’s nothing in her plate anymore and she ends up lifting her gaze. The man in front of her appears to be in his forties, he’s covered in dirt and looks exhausted, and he doesn’t seem to be too fazed about Velvet being here.

Cecily brings another plate and puts it in front of the man, who thanks her with a nod and starts eating. Cecily offers Velvet a second serving and she accepts.

The two of them eat in silence and Cecily goes about her business around the house. At the window Sorey is still looking outside, indifferent.

When the man finishes his food he lifts his gaze and looks for the first time at Velvet.

“Who are you?” he asks.

“She’s a traveler,” answers Cecily for her “she’s taking a break in the town.”

“Mmm,” the man hums “and what’s your name, girl?”

“Velvet,” she answers shortly and doesn’t ask for his name in return, hoping it will be enough to discourage the other. It isn’t.

“You look more like a warrior than a traveler,” comments the man, as casually as possible.

Velvet’s hand tights around her spoon. What the hell is his deal? She wonders, looking more intently at him than before. He looks normal enough, black hair, brown eyes, sun-kissed skin, thin but well-built and his hands look sturdy, showing he’s a hard worker. Nothing about him conveys him as a warrior himself, and his observation has Velvet on edge because it’s an accurate one.

“It’s important to be prepared,” Velvet answers after a tense second “especially when traveling.”

“That’s true,” the man accepts, his words easy and calm “though it’s been a while since I saw someone as prepared as you.”

At that, Velvet sees movement in the corner of her eye. Sorey walks from the window until he’s behind the man and makes sure Velvet can see him when he says, quietly, like someone besides her could hear him:

“I don’t know if he’s from this town, I’ve never seen him around before,” Sorey informs her.

Which doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s not from this town, she thinks, but if Sorey is telling her this then it means he believes it may be significant. Velvet doesn’t think it matters at all.

“I had a very good teacher,” Velvet says, not realizing how hard she’s looking at the man “that’s all.”

The man seems a little taken back by the intensity of Velvet’s gaze but doesn’t let himself be intimidate. Velvet almost growls in frustration when she hears him speak again.

“Was your teacher the one who gave you that sword?” the man asks pointing down with his spoon “it doesn’t look like it would do much good in a fight.”

“It’s a ceremonial sword,” Sorey explains to her “it’s properly sharpened but it wasn’t made to fight.”

“No,” Velvet answers to the man “a friend gave it to me, and so far it has suffice.”

The man hums, thinking over her words.

“Where are you from, lass?” he decides to say.

“A small village, far away at east. You’ve probably never heard of it.”

Velvet wants just this conversation to end, but seeing how she failed miserably at intimidating him the only way she could put a stop to this, she thinks, would be just storming out of the house. She doesn’t want to be rude to Cecily, however, and that would only make her look suspicious, so her only option is to endure it, the man has to stop making questions at some point.

Sorey finds interesting how…easy, this seems to be for Velvet. She obviously would rather not answer the man’s questions, but she still seems to have a reply ready for everything he asks, and very plausible replies at that. In any case, he wonders who this man is and why he has taken such an interest in Velvet. Cecily was also curious, but she wasn’t as inquisitive and this man has a sharp look in the eyes that puts Sorey on edge.

He contemplates telling Velvet to be careful, but seeing her own reactions it doesn’t seem like she needs to be told to keep her guard up.

“I was a traveler myself,” the man says “when I was younger, maybe I actually know your village.”

“Alcino, stop pestering her!” Cecily says suddenly, hands on her hips “she has been lost in the woods for a week! She’s tired, let her be!”

“Sorry, sorry!” Alcino says, putting his hands up in defense “I was just curious, we rarely have anyone visit our town.”

“I wonder why is that,” Velvet murmurs under her breath.

Sorey laughs quietly at that.

“Cecily,” Velvet calls as she gets up, before she becomes the center of attention again “thank you very much for the meal, but I think I should be on my way.”

“So soon?” Alcino says “You just got here.”

“I have matters to attend at Ladylake,” Velvet explains, though looking only at Cecily.

“I’m sure these matters can wait at least a day,” Cecily comments “you need to rest, you look like you haven’t had a proper meal in days, and you must be tired. Spend the night here.”

It’s a tempting offer, but Velvet suspects the man, Alcino, will be staying here too and she doesn’t want to be held to another interrogation.

“Thank you for the offer but, I don’t have anything to even repay you the food, I couldn’t abuse your hospitality anymore.”

“Nonsense!” Cecily exclaims and walks around the table to stand directly in front of her “Spend the night here, I couldn’t live with myself if I let you just go back to the road like this.”

Velvet is ready to decline again, more forcefully this time, but then Sorey talks quietly behind Cecily.

“Maybe we should stay,” he says “it’s a long way to Ladylake, this may be our only opportunity to properly rest.”

“Well…” Velvet starts, considering her options “I guess I could spend the night.”

“Wonderful!” Cecily exclaims.

“But I refuse to don’t pay you back, is there anything I can help you with?”

Before, when she was a deamon, when the only thing in her mind was revenge, she wouldn’t have offer anything in exchange, but even then and despite her words of not doing anything for anyone but herself, she often ended up helping people anyway, repaying the kindness they showed her. Celica taught her to be grateful and kind after all, it was engraved into her very being.

“Let me see,” Cecily says looking around the house “I guess there’s some housework that needs to be done, but—“

“That’s perfect!” Velvet says and, for everyone’s surprise, she’s smiling “I gladly help.”

Cecily looks quizzically at her but eventually smiles too.

“All right then, follow me, there’s quite a bit to do around here, for starters I’ve been meaning to clean the storage room since forever, but something always comes up…”

Both women walk out of the house, the sound of Cecily voice eventually getting lost.

“She’s a strange one,” Alcino says to no one “isn’t she?”

Sorey nods to himself.

“She certainly is.” He says and when he’s heading for the door he notices the piercing gaze of the man over him.

He stops dead on his tracks and looks at Alcino that is following him with his eyes across the room. Sorey even takes a few steps back just to be sure the man is watching him.

“You can see me?” he asks in disbelief.

“I do,” the man answers “you must be a seraphim right?”

Sorey doesn’t answer.

* * *

Cecily shows her the storage room, a little cabin adjacent to the house that is, undoubtedly, in need of some serious cleaning. There are a lot of unorganized boxes laying around, covered with cobwebs and a thick layer of dust, the closer ones to the door are open and she can see different bottled goods inside, probably preservers; the place is un such disarray, with things dropped on the floor and such, that it looks like it won’t be able to hold any more stuff or that it will be impossible to find something there.

 Cecily explains to her how she wants the place arranged and, after asking if she will be okay by herself, leaves to go fetch a broom, a bucket and an apron for her.

She leaves Velvet alone in the dark room.

Velvet has always found housework relaxing, though some part of her wonder how is that. When she was young such tasks were practically shoved onto her without question, but she took them dutifully despite the circumstances that brought them on. Maybe is just that she likes working with her hands, putting her body on autopilot and letting her mind empty while she works.

She would like to take out all the boxes so she could sweep the whole room, but that probably will take her too long and despite her liking for housework she wouldn’t like overdo it, so Velvet starts by sprinkling some water over the floor and takes the broom.

She lets herself get engrossed in her work and soon forgets any lingering worries about staying at this town for too long. She doesn’t even wonder where Sorey is.

* * *

Back inside the house Sorey has taken a seat across from Alcino and is silently listening to him.

“I’ve seen you around a few times,” the man in saying in good spirits “when I asked if someone knew you, everyone said there was no one like you around, they thought I was seeing ghosts…and I mean, they were kinda right.”

The man laughs good-naturally but Sorey doesn’t share his sentiment. He wasn’t expecting anyone to be able to see him, wasn’t expecting having to interact with no one but Velvet. He’s not sure he’s ready for that just yet.

Most seraphim aren’t fond of humans but having been human before Sorey didn’t expect to feel so much…unease, for being around them. It’s not like he dislikes them, he didn’t feel any animosity towards them in his visits to the town, but he had felt very comfortable simply being an observer, being inherently apart from them and unable to reach them.

Now that he’s pretty much being forced to acknowledge the man, now that he’s expected to interact, he’s not so comfortable. Talking with Velvet isn’t hard, or if it is, it is for different reasons.

He doesn’t get it.

“So,” Alcino says at Sorey’s silence “you and your friend got lost in the woods.”

Sorey doesn’t like how curious this man is, how insistent.

“More or less, yes,” he decides to say, having problems coming up with a plausible answer, Velvet made it look so easy “we’re just passing by. How she said, we have matters to attend at Ladylake.”

Alcino hums in contemplation.

“Is she a Squire?” he asks suddenly.

Sorey almost chokes on his spit.

“I mean,” Alcino explains “she’s obviously a warrior, and she’s hanging around with a seraph and she’s got that ceremonial sword.”

“Well…” Sorey is at loss of words.

Maotelus told him, shortly after he woke up, about the state of the world. He said that the current Shepherd had quite a few Squires; the world wasn’t in disarray how it had been in his time, and the knowledge of seraphim and so was more extended to the general public. Still he wasn’t expecting it to be so widespread that someone in a backwater village could make such assumptions and in such a casual way.

“She’s not,” Sorey says “she’s…” _She’s the ex-Lord of Calamity_ he thinks with aggravation “she’s just a girl and we’re simply traveling companions.”

Alcino looks him up and down like he doesn’t believe him but at the end he nods.

“I see,” he says “sorry for asking so many questions is just…she’s _obviously_ not just a girl.”

Sorey frowns.

“What do you mean?”

“Perhaps the rest of town don’t notice it,” Alcino explains “she’s good at hiding it but…she’s got an air of danger around her you know? It put me on edge. But, if a seraph is with her, she can’t be so bad right?”

“You don’t have to worry about her,” Sorey assures, not blaming the man for getting antsy around Velvet, he can relate, really “we’ll be on our way tomorrow.”

They stay in silence then, now that Sorey knows his reasons for being so nosy, he finds the man’s company less bothersome, but still feels a little uncomfortable with his general presence. Or maybe saying he’s uncomfortable with the man’s awareness of his own presence is more accurate.

While they sit, Sorey ponder his relationship with humans. When he himself was human he never really thought about being apart from seraphim, probably because he lived all his life with them, even though he was aware of the obvious difference they didn’t matter. The seraphim were his family, his friends, matter not they were essentially different life forms, and they always treat him like one of their own.

It wasn’t until he left Elysia that he flirted with the idea of how different they actually were and how those difference could hinder their relationship. He still felt not difference himself, back then, but was aware now of how humans thought of seraphim and vice versa.

Edna never really liked humans, and even if at the end of their journey she was more forgiving and understanding of them, even if she was now open to give them a chance, she wasn’t still fond of them.

He never really understood it. For his human-self there was no real reason for humans and seraphim to don’t live peacefully together...besides the malevolence of course, but that was something that could be dealt with, more or less. It was a matter of both parties making an effort, though it was really hard when one of said parties couldn’t be seen or heard by the other and was shrouded in the mystery of old legends.

Now that he’s a seraph himself he thinks he understands it a little. It’s hard to care about someone when they can’t even tell when you’re near.

“May I ask,” Sorey says after a while “what are the religious beliefs in this town?”

Alcino looks at him curiously.

“We worship the Five Lords, of course,” he answers.

Sorey nods, it makes sense, it concurs with what Maotelus said about the state of the world. He wonders how the seraphim feel about the whole thing, if they’re happy, if they actively help humans or if they believe this is only a temporary arrangement and humans will, once again, lost their faith.

At the very least he can say he’s happy about it and he thinks he would help humans, if they asked for his help.

“About Velvet,” Sorey says suddenly as he gets up “I would advise you to don’t push her anymore that you already did. If you have any concerns about our presence please come to me.”

Alcino nods slowly.

“So, she’s dangerous.” It’s not a question.

“I assure you she will not cause any problems to this village, she’s simply…not in a good place, at the moment.”

The man hums in contemplation but doesn’t say more and doesn’t stop Sorey when he gets out the house.

He goes to find Velvet in the storage room. He goes to approach her but stops. Right now she’s outside the room, shaking the dust out of a worn out sheet and when she’s done, she mumbles something to herself as she examines the sheet; she’s unaware of his presence and Sorey is surprised at how relaxed she looks.

How normal she seems, he thinks, just a villager doing her mundane chores, like she’s unaware of any matter in the grand scheme of things, like the only thing that exists in this world are her, this town and her housework.

It’s still early in the morning, not even noon yet, and it looks like Velvet will be here for a while, so Sorey decides to let her have this moment for herself and goes to wander around the village.

He finds solace in being an invisible ghost to the people here.

* * *

It’s well after noon when Velvet is done with the storage room. She’s sitting with her legs crossed over a now clean box, looking with a satisfied gaze at the place that now looks actually useable and organized.

She feels tired, but it’s the kind of tiredness that eases muscles and helps you rest. She takes a sip from the lemonade that Cecily brought her some time ago, contemplating her work and this town.

It reminds her of Aball. She thinks about how the town should look in autumn, when all the trees change their green for red, orange and yellow and sighs.  The idea is attractive, stay here for as long as autumn takes to come and watch the change herself, to keep herself occupied with chores like this.

It would be a good life and she feels a pang of guilt over the thought.

Before, whenever she thought of something like that she would scold herself severally. How dare she imagine a more comforting life when Artorius was out there, being adored by the world at the cost of Laphi’s dead.

Now she doesn’t find it in herself to be to mad about it, at least not as much. It’s just a thought, a soft daydream that she can allow to enter her mind despite the guilt and sadness it brings. She allows it in and then steads herself with a breath and lets it go in a sigh.

Cecily comes fetch her after a while so she can have lunch. They enter the house again and Velvet is relieved at not seeing the man, Alcino, anywhere, but wonders where Sorey could’ve gone when she doesn’t see him there either. If he doesn’t appear she doesn’t know how she’s gonna find him, it’s not like she can ask around.

Cecily makes small talk but doesn’t seem to mind that Velvet would rather remain silent, so she chats away while they eat. Velvet asks her if there’s anything else she can help her with.

“Aren’t you tired?” Cecily questions with warm eyes.

Velvet shakes her head no, even though she feels like she could use a nap right now.

“Well…” Cecily looks around the house “maybe you can help me chop some firewood? Usually Alcino helps me with that, but he just got back from his hunting trip.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Velvet nods. She’s not that familiar with wood chopping, since that was usually Arthur’s work, but she can still manage.

“Ok, then you can get to that when you’re done eating, there’s no hurry,” Cecily assures her with a smile.

Velvet corresponds with a small smile and they keep eating in silence.

“You know,” Cecily says quietly after a moment “you remind me of my daughter.”

Velvet, spoon half-way to her mouth, looks at her with surprise.

“I do?” she asks, with perhaps more disbelief than such a comparison would grant.

Cecily nods.

“Yeah, she is around your age, and is a hard worker just like you,” she explains with a soft smile “she went to Ladylake a few years ago, wanted to live the life of the big city.”

Velvet doesn’t know what to say to that so she simply waits for Cecily to continue.

“She used to write me every week but…some months ago no new letters came.” Cecily sighs deeply and looks at the floor with a long, tired gaze “I hope she’s all right.”

“I…I’m sure she is,” Velvet says somehow awkwardly, not knowing exactly how to be reassuring.

Cecily laughs quietly, noticing Velvet’s clumsiness but appreciating her sentiment.

“What about you Velvet? Aren’t your parents worried about you being a traveler?”

Velvet sighs.

“My parents died when I was very young,” she answers “my older sister took care of me and my little brother but…they passed away too.”

“Oh, dear, I’m so sorry,” Cecily exclaims and reaches for Velvet’s left hand over the table.

She flinches a little when Cecily takes her hand but she ends up allowing the contact, if anything to keep up appearances. It’s been way too long since the last time she had someone touching her like this and it warms her heart, having the sincere kindness of this woman thrown at her, but it also hurts her, like she shouldn’t accept it, like she isn’t allowed to take it. She swallows hard.

“I’m sorry I brought it up, I had no idea,” Cecily apologizes.

“It’s okay,” Velvet says “it all happened a long time ago, it’s…” she takes a moment to breathe and stead herself.

Her parents’ dead have always been in the past for Velvet, she barely knew them and there’s little she remembers about them. Celica’s dead is fresher in her mind but that’s a duel Velvet already had. Laphi’s dead however…her life was all about his dead, about all she lost that day. She never properly mourned him, her need for revenge can hardly be called mourning.

And besides, she lost Arthur too, and for him she didn’t even allow herself to be sad.

“It’s in the past,” she forces herself to say.

Because it is in the past, is in the life of a millennia ago and there’s not more revenge to hunt and no sins to repent for, or no meaning in it.

“It’s okay, dear,” Cecily hushes her “let it all out.”

Velvet doesn’t realizes until that moment that she’s crying.

“I’m sorry,” Velvet sputters, embarrassed, cleaning her tears with the hand Cecily isn’t holding “I’m sorry it’s just…”

“Don’t worry about it,” the woman says warmly “sometimes, it’s just like that.”

Velvet nods.

“I guess so…” she lifts her gaze to look at Cecily, who is watching her with warm affection and Velvet shudders under her gaze “about your daughter…” she says to change subjects and banish her mind of such thoughts “What’s her name? I…I can look for her, when I get to Ladylake, giver her an earful for not writing to her mother.”

Cecily laughs wholeheartedly.

“Her name is Adeline. Everyone says she looks a lot like me so you’ll have no problems spotting her.”

“Adeline. Got it.” Velvet nods, now really looking at Cecily: she’s got black, raven hair with eyes to match and her skin is a light shade of brown.

Cecily gives her hand a good squish and then let’s go of her.

Velvet finds incredible how she misses the warm when it’s gone.

* * *

Velvet chops wood all afternoon and only stops when the sun is setting. She hasn’t seen Sorey all day but she doesn’t worry much about it, though she wonders in what he occupies himself, it’s not like he can just go and strike conversation with the townspeople.

When she gets back into the house she finds out Cecily fixed her a bath and, even if a little overwhelmed by the woman’s attention, Velvet takes it and let’s herself enjoy it.

This is a good town to relax, she thinks. Life is simple here and the times are different now, people isn’t afraid of deamons and it shows in how little worries they have.

When she steps out of the bathroom dinner is already waiting for her.

“I can’t thank you enough,” Velvet says while she sits at the table “for all you’ve done.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Cecily assures her “is the least I could do.”

It’s more than anyone would do. This is a world, Velvet thinks, when people can give themselves the luxury of being hospitable with strangers, of showing them kindness and expecting nothing in return. It feels so strange.

At some point the man, Alcino, comes to the house and joins them for dinner but he doesn’t pester her with any more questions and he rather chats with Cecily.

It isn’t late yet but Velvet has been working all day, she feels tired and she also would like to set out early in the morning so after she’s doing eating she asks Cecily where can she sleep.

Cecily gets up and goes to the drawer, pulling a bunch of blankets and starts to accommodate them in the floor, near the bed Velvet guesses is Cecily’s. The makeshift bed looks pretty alluring, even if it is on the floor.

Velvet goes there, takes out her coat and folds it neatly, putting Sorey’s sword on top of it.

She lays on her size, and even though Cecily and Alcino are still talking at the table sleep finds her quickly.

She doesn’t dream and it’s the most satisfying sleep she’s had in thousand years.

* * *

Velvet wakes up on her own a little after dawn. Cecily is still sleeping soundly in the bed so she gets up as quietly as possible.

Sorey is sitting at the table, absently passing the pages of his tattered book and he only spares a look as she gets up. She goes to the bathroom to wash her face and when she comes out and Cecily is still sleeping, she approaches Sorey.

“Good morning,” he says as she sits on the table.

She nods in acknowledgement.

“Are you ready to leave?” he asks.

“I am.” Velvet says and comments: “This is a lovely town.”

“Would you like to stay?” Sorey inquires, putting his book aside.

“No. Though I wouldn’t mind coming back…sometime.”

Sorey nods.

They stay in silence for a while. Outside the birds are chirping and the faint sound of voices reaches them. It feels like they should say something, but none of them knows exactly what it is so they let the silence between them linger.

Sorey takes out his book again and passes the pages without really reading them.

“What’s so interesting about that book?” Velvet says after a while of watching him.

Sorey looks at her and then at the book and smiles sheepishly.

“Honestly? Not much,” he says, the words weird but not insincere in his mouth “it’s…a habit. My human-self studied this book tirelessly and I guess…it rubbed off on me. Would you like to take a look?” He says, offering the book her way.

“No,” she answers “I’ve never been a fan of books to be honest. My brother loved them, Phi too, but I never saw the appeal.”

“Maybe you never found the right book for you,” Sorey offers with a smile “they’re a great way to pass the time, if anything. And now that I’m a seraph I guess I’ll have a lot of time to pass.” He laughs and looks at the book in his hands.

Velvet watches him and wonders if the Sorey in front of her is much different to Shepherd Sorey. He doesn’t know what the change to being human to begin a malak would imply, the only person she knew that lived through that was Seres and she—

Velvet can only know of the change from human to deamon, but she doubts it would be similar enough to relate it to Sorey’s experience.

“When we get to Ladylake,” Sorey says “we could look for a book for you, if you want.”

She considers this. Part of the reason she never got interested in books was because she didn’t have time for that, between housework and taking care of Laphi there was barely time to breath. And then she became a therion and there was barely time for anything that wasn’t revenge.

“Maybe,” she says at the end “we’ll see how things are there.”

By then Cecily starts waking up so they hold their conversation for later.

When Cecily wakes up she prepares breakfast for both of them. She tries to talk Velvet into staying a little more, to rest properly, but Velvet has made up her mind and declines the offer.

After breakfast, and before Velvet leaps for the door, Cecily gives her a big bag with various goods inside. There’s some bread, cheese and fruits, some gels too and a sleeping bag, but what catches Velvet’s attention are the map and the compass.

“Alcino brought them for you last night,” Cecily explains “to make up for the way he spoke to you yesterday.”

The map is similar to the one in Sorey’s book, but this one has a lot more places written in. The compass isn’t like the one Phi had, this one is small enough to fit in her palm and she doesn’t need to hold her a certain way for it to point north.

Sorey looks at the things and nods. He asked Alcino for those items yesterday and would like properly thank him, but he guesses that if he left the things here, the man would probably not come today.

“Thank you so much,” Velvet says as he puts everything back into the bag “I really don’t know how to thank you for all this.”

“I told you not to worry about it, dear,” Cecily tells with a smile “it’s a long way to Ladylake, you’ll need it.”

“Yeah,” Velvet nods “I guess, I should be on my way. I’ll keep an eye out for your daughter.”

“Thank you,” Cecily says, leading her to the door “take care, and feel free to come back here, if you want.”

Velvet thanks her again and goes to shake her hand, but Cecily pulls her into a hug. She tenses and it takes her some long painful seconds to relax and respond the hug.

“Be careful out there,” Cecily says.

“I will be,” Velvet assures her slowly “thank you again.”

After that, Cecily points the way out the forest and they go.

It’s not until they’re out of the town and well into the woods that Sorey talks.

“You made a friend,” he comments.

Velvet thinks a little about his statement and, after a while she answers:

“I guess I did.”

This is probably, she thinks, what Phi wants for her.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so, well, i'm here! i updated! lets concentrate in the good bits, lets not think about how much time has been lol
> 
> man, i'm sorry it took me this long to update, i promise you that i'm working on the next chapter already and that i dont want to take this long to update again, but i can't make any promises, still, i like to thank everyone for leaving comments! i didn't answer the last ones i got bc i was full of shame about not updating and, idk, but i want you to know even if i dont answer i appreciate them a lot, and all of your comments are the reason i'm here today, posting this! so thanks a lot! <3
> 
> I'll do my best to dont let you guys hanging like this again! Thanks for reading, every comment will be appreciate! <3


	5. Chapter 5

According to Sorey it should take them less than a week to reach Ladylake, but Velvet finds herself wanting to make the trip even shorter.

Once out of the forest they were in Lakehaven Heights, a plateau covered in miles of green grass, open and with little besides the mountain line far away in the distance to interrupt the sight.

The idea of having to sleep out in the open here puts Velvet on edge and she pressures Sorey to make good time, but he doesn’t think it’s necessary and doesn’t heed her words.

Back in her other journey there were few times when they had to camp, since most of their travels were aboard the Van Eltia, but even when they had to sleep somewhere in the field, she didn’t worry much about the dangers of doing so, they were two deamons, two malakhim, a witch and a preator exorcist, there was little out there besides the Abbey that could actually bring them trouble.

Now, however, she’s just a human girl with a weapon she’s not that familiar with and her companion is a malak that while powerful, she doesn’t know well enough to feel at ease fighting at his side.

Sorey assures her she has little to worry about when she voices her concern. He says that hellions are unlikely to appear since the world is not like it used to and they’re still pretty close to the epicenter of Maotelus’ domain. Still, the first night they had to make camp in the middle of nowhere Velvet is antsy.

They stop when the sun is setting, choosing to spend the night near some big rocks that will offer some protection from the wind. The trees are becoming scarcer as they get farther away from the forest and the mountains behind them loom over them.

Velvet doesn’t want to start a fire, because even if there aren’t deamons about, the light may attract animals or bandits or other travelers and all of them are unwanted guests, but Sorey insists that it will be okay and convinces her saying that, since they’re still in pretty high altitude, the night will be cold.

So, at the end, Sorey gathers some wood and puts on a small fire. Cecily was really thoughtful when she gave her supplies, so Velvet has the necessary items to boil some water and make tea.

While she waits for the tea to be ready, sitting close to the fire over her sleeping bag, Sorey occupies himself with the book and the map. He seems to making comparisons between the map in his book and the one Cecily gave them. The interest he shows on it reminds her of both Phi and Laphi, and a little of Eizen too, he also loved that kind of thing.

“Have things change much?” Velvet says after a while, just to have something to say and stop thinking about whatever may jump to attack them from the shadows.

“Not as much as I thought,” Sorey answers “there seems to be more towns, but the main cities remain the same and nothing has change names at all.”

She nods, even though he isn’t looking at her, too absorbed on his task. Watching him, she can’t help but be curious about him. When he said he used to be the Shepherd, the first time they met, she had immediately felt animosity towards him, because the only Shepherd she knew was a cold, cruel man…just, noble perhaps, but cruel all the same.

Phi told her Sorey wasn’t like that, he said Sorey was just and noble too and that he wanted nothing more than peace in the world. But unlike Artorius, Sorey didn’t believe in sacrifices, in the end justifies the means. He didn’t believe in the many over the individual, and rather sought a way in which everyone could be saved, no exceptions.

“Sorey,” she calls, when the tea is ready and she has already pour herself a cup “why did you become the Shepherd?”

He looks effectively startled with her sudden enquiry. He puts the book and map aside and looks at her with his head slightly inclined. He wasn’t expecting her to question him so openly about anything really, let alone about this.

He’s not sure what to say.

“Well, it was all pretty sudden to be sincere.” He starts slowly, gathering his thoughts “The reason I leave my village was solely to help a friend, warn her about someone who was going after her, but when I came out of Elysia I realized in what state the world was in and I…I guess I became the Shepherd because I could.”

Velvet drinks her tea, musing his answer with her eyes on the fire. He has lost interest in the maps and rather closes his book and folds the map, waiting for her to say something.

“Phi made it sound like you didn’t have much of a choice,” she says.

For her surprise he laughs. It’s a strange laugh, because though it isn’t devoid of humor it seems like the joke is not something one is supposed to laugh at.

“I didn’t,” he says with conviction.

Sorey has thought about it. In the months after waking up he had a lot to think about and a lot of time to do it. The truth is his human-self didn’t have much of a choice, though at the time it seemed like he did, but really, even with Lailah warning him about what being the Shepherd meant, what was he supposed to do? They didn’t call it the Age of Chaos for nothing and he saw it firsthand.

What was he supposed to do, when humans and seraphim alike were suffering and no one but him had the literal power to do something about it.

His human-self wanted to be an explorer not the savior of the world, but Gramps raised him right and when he found himself in the altar at Ladylake with the option of doing nothing or helping the world and its people, of making a world in which he could fulfilled his own dreams…what was he supposed to do if not the right thing?

“I became the Shepherd because, at the moment, I was the only one who could,” he says.

“How noble of you,” Velvet says and it sounds a little sarcastic, but Sorey doesn’t seem to mind.

How noble of him, indeed. He wonders what would he do now if a similar situation raised, would he still do the right thing?

“It’s not so different from what you did,” Sorey observes and Velvet sharps her eyes in his direction.

“How so?” she questions with her voice cold, like a warning.

Sorey kicks down the fear he feels at seeing her reaction. He coughs a few times to mask it, while he braves himself.

“I mean,” he says carefully “I made the choice of becoming the Shepherd, you made the choice to chase revenge.”

“What else was I supposed to do?” Velvet barks “Stay put and rot in a cell?”

“Exactly my point.”

She muses this.

“Fair enough.” She concedes, sipping her tea.

Sorey smiles then and Velvet feels her lips twitch in desire to correspond, but she hides her face in her cup.

He looks at her curiously too and thinking that, since she’s the one that started the conversation, he’s allowed to ask something too.

“So…” he says, watching her carefully “a cell?”

Fortunately for him, Velvet isn’t fazed by the question. She nods, putting her cup down.

“After I became a therion,” she starts saying “Artorius put me in a special prison for deamons, he…did Phi told you about the nature of Innominat?” She interrupts herself, to know how much context she needs to give.

Sorey nods.

“A little, yes, he explained to me Innominat fed on malevolence, and required certain types of it to strength himself and extend his domain.”

“Right,” Velvet continues “Innominat used the earthpulses to feed himself. Under the prison was an earthpulse point and Artorius put me there so I could send malevolence to Innominat.”

“For how long were you there?” Sorey asks.

He’s surprised at how easy it seems to be for Velvet to tell him this and starts doing his mental list on what subjects bother her and which don’t. He would’ve expect her to don’t want to talk about it, she was in a prison and though he never was in one he can’t imagine it would be a pleasant experience, especially if it was full of hellions.

“Three years,” Velvet answers with a faraway gaze, looking at the dark terrain that extends beyond the light of their bonfire.

“That’s a long time,” he says, overwhelmed with the idea of her being trapped in such a place for so long but not really knowing what to say “how did you endure it?”

Velvet turns to look at Sorey.

“Being a deamon gives you a very one track mind. I didn’t care about being there, I only thought about how, when I got out, I was going to kill Artorius with my own hands. That’s how I endured it, I couldn’t give up when he was out there, alive.”

Sorey swallows hard. Velvet’s eyes are suddenly hard, full of a dormant fire and sick determination that scares him. As if she were to be given a reason to become a therion again, to be once again in the search of revenge, she could easily do it. 

Like the Lord of Calamity is still inside her, like she still is the Lord of Calamity. Which is a funny thought, he thinks, considering how she hasn’t produce any malevolence during their time together. He can’t be sure if she really hasn’t produce malevolence or if it has been so little that he hasn’t notice it.

He would’ve expected her to give out a considerable amount, taking into account her past, even if not enough to become a hellion. He’s pleasantly surprise at seeing that isn’t the case, it’s a really good thing, for both of them.

“I can’t imagine something like that,” Sorey quietly says after a while “I mean...hating someone so much…”

He thinks of Heldalf using Gramps to make him break, making him _kill_ Gramps and he’s not sure if he’s saying the truth.

Velvet lets out a sigh.

“That’s fine, hating isn’t nice. It may give you drive but…”

But at what cost, she thinks.

Sorey sees her wistful eyes and wonders if she regrets doing what see did, any part of it, but doesn’t have the heart to ask her such thing. If she does he doesn’t want to make her dwell on those feelings so long, and if she doesn’t…he’s not so sure what to feel if she doesn’t.

“I’m going to sleep now,” Velvet announces, getting up to arrange her sleeping bag “wake me up if something comes up.”

“Nothing will come up,” Sorey says for the umpteenth time that night “believe me, it’s safe.”

Velvet clicks her tongue.

“Just…keep watch. I’d do it myself if I didn’t need to sleep,” she mumbles, thinking about how being a therion was really convenient sometimes.

“I will,” Sorey says with a reassuring tone “sleep, you don’t have anything to worry about. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

Velvet curls inside her bag and the cracking of the fire lulls her to sleep.

* * *

The next day Sorey says, in the low-key smug way good-mannered people do because they think if they’re polite enough about it then it isn’t that annoying, he says:

“See? Nothing happened last night,” he’s smiling charmingly too.

“Just because nothing happened last night doesn’t mean nothing will happen tonight,” Velvet retorts firmly.

Sorey doesn’t roll his eyes because he’s nice like that, but the sigh that could’ve been a snort he lets out is more than enough.

“Still,” he says after Velvet is done gathering her things and has started walking “the city is not going anywhere, we can slow down.”

“I don’t care,” she says, walking fast “I don’t want to be out in the open more than necessary.”

Sorey doesn’t say more, deciding he’ll never be able to convince her and simply matches her stride, though he still ends up falling a few steps behind her.

They travel in silence for a while, stopping for a moment near a small stream to fill the wineskin Cecily gave Velvet. While she’s at it Sorey looks around, thinking about how little Lakehaven Heights seem to have changed. He had expected for all of it to look really different, but in truth it’s like it was just yesterday he left Elysia with Mikleo at his side and walked these same paths.

He looks at the crystalline water of the stream and the memory of Mikleo becomes strong and vivid, so much that if he closes his eyes he can almost hear his voice again but the words he says are unclear and faraway, like he wouldn’t know what Mikleo can say to him now.

It occurs to him that he really doesn’t know and the incertitude makes his chest ache for a multitude of reasons he doesn’t want to wallow in. He breaths deeply and follows Velvet.

Meanwhile, she ponders on the silence that surrounds them. Since Sorey has fallen behind her she’s the one leading the way, and he only speaks to point her in the right direction. It doesn’t sit well with her how silent they’re being and she finds ironic that the quietness bothers her now.

There was never a dull moment with Magilou around and there always seemed to be something to talk about. Even if Velvet remained silent herself, her companions would always have a conversation going and most of the time she inevitably ended up wrapped in it too.

It feels too strange to don’t have the constant noise of her friends at her back.

“Sorey,” she calls loudly and he immediately picks up the pace to walk at her side.

“Yes?” he asks, a little too eager she notices but doesn’t comment on it.

“Last night you said you left your village to warn a friend about something,” she starts “how’s that? Tell me about it.” She almost demands.

He hums contemplating where he should start his story, glad to have something to think about that doesn’t involve unwanted conjectures.

“When I was human I was fascinated with history and the ancient civilizations,” Sorey starts explaining “there were some big ruins near my village that my friend Mikleo and I would go explore regularly. One day, we found a human girl collapsed inside the ruins, and we went to help her, Mikleo didn’t want to go at all but I couldn’t just leave her there and I was curious…it was the first time I saw a another human.”

“How so?” Velvet says.

“Elysia is village of just seraphim, I ended up there due to…certain circumstances. I was the only human there.”

Velvet is weirded out with the idea. Phi said that Sorey had grown up among malakhim but didn’t specify he had been raised purely by them. She knows malakhim live differently than humans and have other needs, traveling with Eizen and Phi showed her that, and she can’t imagine how it should be to grow up among beings so different from oneself.

“I see,” she decides to say, reserving her questions about it for later “go on.”

“Okay, so the human girl was named Alisha,” Sorey continues, getting into the story, his tone of voice getting cheery “but I didn’t get to know that until later, she was really wary of me and I guess the fact that she didn’t have resonance didn’t help. She couldn’t see anyone in the village, so it looked like I lived there alone.”

“I would’ve been wary too,” Velvet comments.

Sorey laughs a little.

“If Mikleo hadn’t been there telling me how to act I would’ve made a fool of myself.” He says like he doesn’t realize it and when he does his smile falters a little.

He recomposes himself quickly and explains to Velvet how Alisha eventually told him she was there looking for answers as to why there was so much chaos in the world, and perhaps for a way to fix it. She was also an avid reader of the Celestial Record and believed the answers she sought may have been in the knowledge of old.

“That was a far shoot,” Velvet musses aloud.

Sorey nods.

“It payed off, in the end. She stayed with me for few days but she had to come back to Ladylake.” He continues “She left behind a knife and it had the royal crest, she turned out to be the princess of the Kingdom of Hyland.”

“A princess?” Velvet says.

“A knight princess,” Sorey clarifies with a smile.

“A knight princess,” Velvet repeats and can’t help but find contagious Sorey’s enthusiasm. “Sounds like a fairy tale.” She observes.

“I know right?!” Sorey exclaims, happily “Anyway, so shortly after she left a hellion attacked our village and he said some things that made us assumed that he was after Alisha, so Mikleo and I went after her to warn her about it. She had also invited me to the go to Ladylake for the Sacred Blade Festival, so when we got to the city things were pretty lively.”

“A festival?” Velvet encourages him to keep talking.

“Yes. The Sacred Blade Festival is a long tradition of the Kingdom of Hyland, it’s a religious celebration were the main event is to discover a new Shepherd. At the Sanctuary, there is a sword plunged in the altar and people gather to see who is able to take it out. In truth, there’s a seraph there, the Lady of the lake, and you can only take out the sword if you make a pact with her.”

“That’s how you became the Shepherd?”

“Yes. I made a pact with the Lady of the lake, Lailah, I became her vessel.”

“Will she be expecting you at the city?”

That makes Sorey pause. In all honesty he hasn’t think that much about his old companions, he has been actively avoiding to think about them. He told Velvet that’s the reason why he left the Throne, to go look for them, and that’s why he thinks he embarked himself on this journey, but he hasn’t really thought about it, about where he will look for them, or what he’s going to say when he sees them, what will they say when they see him, what he’s going to feel when he sees them. Surely, the same he felt befo—

He’s not that sure that he will encounter Lailah at the city, however. Maotelus didn’t tell him what she was up to, but if there’s a current Shepherd with quite a few Squires going around, then she must be busy and probably traveling too.

“I don’t know,” he answers “she must be with the current Shepherd so I don’t know if she will be there.”

Sorey keeps telling her then about what he did the first time he came to Ladylake. He tells her about how everything was new and strange to him, how eager he was to explore the city and learn all he could about the way humans lived there, and about the city itself. He tells her about how impressed he was with everything he saw and how worried and sadden at the malevolence and the hellions inside the city.

It was unbelievable to him that people wouldn’t know of seraphim, which they thought to be but a legend; even the idea of the Shepherd was laughable at the time, people didn’t have faith and it showed in the way malevolence creeped around them.

At the time Sorey had been overwhelmed, both with human civilization and with their lack of faith. Even though he never prayed to seraphim per se he was aware of how their blessing or lack of it could affect human lives. It had been the strangest thing to get out of Elysia and don’t feel a domain.

Velvet listens attentively to him without saying much. The sound of Sorey’s voice rises in the calm silence of Lakehaven Heights in a quite murmur that appears as a part of the landscape too, and they walk like this for some time. She’s enjoying the sound of his voice filling the air and the tale he tells, she muses, is really one worth hearing.

He’s indeed so different from Artorius and when she thinks of him as the Shepherd she realizes the title and what it represents doesn’t disgusts her at all.

After a while Sorey stops his story, something catches his attention and in a moment he goes ahead of Velvet, urging her to come to his side.

She goes after him, and he receives her at the top of a rock with a smile and ample gesture of his arm, showing her the view below. They’re still pretty high and from the rock they can see Ladylake in the distance. Velvet looks at it, impressed at the sight, even if they’re still days away they can clearly see the city, sticking out as it’s the only memorable landmark in miles.

The city stands proudly in the middle of an enormous lake and Velvet wonders how big it must be, if from here it already seems huge. Ladylake, floating in the middle of the water is surrounded with a mystic and elegance the she doesn’t remember seeing in any city of her time, and her eyes feed on the breathtaking sight. She stands there, watching it and thinking about people that would’ve love to be in her place and get to explore this city.

Sorey, at her side, looks pensively at the city too, the excited smile from a moment ago long gone.

They stand there for a long while: her with thoughts about what would’ve been and him with thoughts of what it once was.

* * *

When nothing happens that night either and Sorey is looking entirely too smug for someone trying to don’t look smug, Velvet concedes that okay, yeah, maybe nothing bad will come to eat them at the middle of the night so they can slow down a little bit.

Sorey is thankful for that, because even if he’s a seraph now that Velvet has been eating and sleeping right, she’s really hard to keep up with.

They walk for two more days, they don’t encounter dangerous animals, bandits or even other travelers during that time. Now Sorey has been telling her about how Alisha became his Squire for a time and how Mikleo Lailah’s sub-lord.

She appreciates that he’s humoring her in telling her all of this specially since there are occasions in which it looks like he would rather not talk about it. He gets particularly uncomfortable when he has say too much about Mikleo. When he mentions him in passing he doesn’t seem to care, but the moment he has to dwell a little too much on him, on what he did or what he said, Sorey gets this weird, blank expression on his face and his tone of voice, usually lively and happy, drops to a monotonous detachment.

Velvet can’t understand the reason for this and wonders if this Mikleo is okay, if he survived their journey or if something happened between him and Sorey. Even so, she doesn’t ask Sorey about it and decides to let him tell her when and if he wants to. She hasn’t offered much information about herself and her journey in exchange for Sorey’s story so it’s better if she doesn’t ask too much.

They make it to Ladylake a little after noon. They can see people and carriages gathering at the town’s bridge and before they get too close Sorey offers to go ahead and do some scouting, since it looks like the guards at the gates are doing some kind of checkup.

Velvet stays behind but keeps walking at a steady pace, observing attentively at the people crowding the bridge. Here, her presence isn’t an anomaly and no one spares her a second glance, and she’s glad when she sees some people carrying swords, spears or bows.

There are two lines at the entrance, one for carriages and one for people on foot, she goes gets in line there and waits for Sorey to come back with information. He comes back walking between the people, taking care of not bumping into anyone even though no one would notice if he did.

“They’re asking to see traveling permits,” Sorey says when he gets at her side “they’re being really strict about it too, maybe I can sneak into town and see if I can get you one?” he suggests.

She drops her gaze and puts her hand on her chin, thinking. Even if really nothing happened in their short trip, Velvet still doesn’t like having to hang out in the open for too long, and who knows how long would take Sorey to get her the permit. If she’s honest she feels vulnerable now that she’s human again, in a way she hadn’t felt in a long time and she’s itching to get herself a gauntlet and a pair of greaves.

Velvet looks around and the carriages catch her attention.

“Are they checking the inside of carriages too?” she whispers, though there’s enough chattering around for her voice to be unnoticeable.

“Yes but they aren’t being too thoroughly, they seem more interest in the paperwork for some reason.”

She nods. She eyes with interest the nearest carriage, thinking it probably belongs to merchants since she can see the shapes of some boxes and barrels behind the curtains at the back.

“Do you think you could make a distraction?” She asks Sorey, deliberately staying behind when the line moves.

He thinks this over.

“For how long?”

She calculates the distance between her and carriage.

“Not much. Ten seconds, fifteen tops.”

Sorey looks around too, thinking about what he could do to buy her time. He sees the long posts at each side of the bridge, their metallic tips, and gets an idea.

“Yeah, I think I can manage.” He says “Wait here.”

“What will you do?”

“Just some lighting tricks, you’ll see your opening.”

He goes off running to the start of the line and soon Velvet loses sight of him in the middle of the crowd.

She waits patiently with her eyes on her objective. The mana in the air changing, sparking and moving suddenly doesn’t distract her but she wonders briefly if anyone else can tell.

Without warning a lighting hits one of the posts with a flashing of yellow and then a thunderous sound; electricity fills the air and the land shudders at the impact. Everyone turns to look at the source of the racket, exclamations of fear and wonder on their lips.

Velvet had already started running the moment she saw the lighting and while she’s sprinting towards the carriage there’s another lighting hitting the posts. The people gets on edge at it, wondering why there’s lighting in such a sunny day and why they’re falling here, and the commotion gives enough time to Velvet to get into the carriage, move some boxes and make a little nest for herself in the back, where she sits hugging her legs.

There are no more lightings but the murmur of worry surrounding the people takes a while to die down, but it eventually does and everyone gets back to their business, if only eyeing the posts with suspicion from time to time.

The carriage advances a few times before Sorey can find her. He enters the carriage and sits at the back over a box.

“How was it?” he asks with a smile.

“Really good,” she compliments, nodding “but I wonder how the people are going to take the sudden lighting in a clear day.”

“Ah, stranger things have happened in this town,” Sorey shrugs it off “and I heard some of them saying the culprit may have been a mischievous seraph, so it’ll be fine.”

“Maybe they’ll pray harder after this.”

Sorey chuckles.

“Maybe.”

The carriage moves slowly and it takes them a while to reach their turn. The voices of the merchants and guards carry from outside but she can’t make any of what they’re saying so she simply waits and hopes these merchants have their paperwork in order.

Shortly after a guard opens the carriage and gets in. Sorey doesn’t move from his spot and he puts a hand over Velvet’s head to make her duck lower. A quick, half-heartily check later, the guard comes off the carriage and gives the merchants permission to move into the city.

Velvet lets out a relieved breath. It takes her a moment to realize Sorey is still touching her head, in fact, he’s caressing her hair.

“Do you mind?” she spits.

“Oh! Sorry!” he exclaims, realizing what he had been doing “Sorry it’s just…your hair is really soft.” He says, with a clear, naïve sincerity that doesn’t let her be mad at him.

“Just…don’t do that again.”

He nods energetically but doesn’t speak another word. Velvet sighs and waits in silence for the carriage to stop.

It’s been a while since they entered town when their advance finally halts and there are voices outside again.

“Sorey, go out and see how many people are there.” Velvet says, still sitting in her spot.

Sorey goes to it but the moment he sticks out his head he turns to her in alarm.

“Someone’s coming!”

She doesn’t even have the time to curse when the curtains of the carriage are open wide by a young man. He gets in with an air of laziness and starts unloading the carriage all by himself, groaning all the while like he would rather be dead than doing this.

“What are you gonna do?” Sorey asks nervous, seeing how the man gets closer and closer to the spot where Velvet is hiding.

Velvet shrugs. She hasn’t thought about what she was going to do when she arrived to the city but, right now, it occurs to her that she doesn’t like the idea of starting off by committing a crime. In any case it’s already too late for that because she has just illegally entered the city so she may as well go all out…

Perhaps not all out, she muses with a slice of dark humor: she’s definitely not burning down any towns now.

When the young man gets close enough to notice something is amiss, Velvet readies her sword. Before the guy can have the time process that there’s a girl that shouldn’t be there in their carriage, Velvet already has the edge of the sword at his neck.

“Don’t say a word,” she orders when it looks like the guy is about to scream “you do any sound and you can say goodbye to your neck, got it?”

The man nods, his lower lip shaking and his whole body getting soaked in sweat. She feels a little bad for him, he’s pretty young and this is probably the first time something like this has ever happened to him. But well, if he’s a merchant something like this was going to happen at some point.

“Is there anyone else outside?” Velvet asks.

The man shakes his head no.

“Good,” she nods and thinks about leaving it there and just going on about her business, but she’s gonna need money here. “What’s inside the boxes?”

“Th— there’s mostly grain and, and some gels, panacea bottles and such.”

Nothing that is worth that much so she will have to stick to the traditional method to get gald.

“Give me all the money you have with you, quickly.”

The man unties a pair of pouches that hang from his belt, having problems to do it fast with his shaky fingers but Velvet is patient with him. She takes the pouches, none of them seem to have that much money, she notices, but it will have to do.

“Thanks,” she says, putting the money in her bag, She starts to walk towards the entrance “now I’m going to go, you’re gonna stay really quiet and you will not say a word to anyone about this. Are we clear?”

“Yes,” he says, looking like he’s about to pass out, Velvet’s sword still at his neck.

“All right.” She says.

Velvet throws Sorey a glance and points with her head outside. He goes, strangely silent, to check and come backs quickly.

“It’s clear,” he says.

Velvet gives one last intimidating gaze to the man and then quickly takes her leave.

She runs without having a real direction, just trying to get as far away as possible from there. She eventually stops at the end of  an alleyway, far away from prying eyes, she sits in the ground with her back to the wall to catch her breath. Towering over her, Sorey is giving her a very disapproving gaze.

“That wasn’t very nice.” He comments dryly.

“Who told you I was nice.” She says in return.

Maotelus, obviously, but Sorey is starting to think the old seraph may had been a little biased.

“I understand you didn’t want him to alert the guards or the other merchants,” Sorey says with aggravation, ignoring her comment “but you didn’t have to scare him like that, or rob him.”

“Yes, yes I had to,” Velvet retorts with harshness “if I didn’t scare him enough to paralyze him, he was going to go off running and screaming, and we’re gonna need money to get around the city.”

“Well, yes, but there are other ways to get money, you didn’t have to steal it!” Sorey says, with more sentiment this time and frowning.

“Look, I literally just woke up for a thousand years nap and I have no idea how one gets by in this city. We need the money to start figuring that out,” Velvet says, getting up to confront Sorey face to face “I saw an opportunity to solve that problem and I took it, simple as that.”

Her explanation only makes Sorey angrier with whole thing. She could’ve easily just scare the guy and then run for it, like they actually did, without having to steal anything from him, and if she’s so worried about how to get by in the city she could’ve just asked him. In the town in the woods she showed him that she knows how to work to get by, she could’ve just do that here too, look for odd jobs or something, but apparently she just decided it was better to take the easy way out and commit a crime.

It’s the kind of selfishness that can breed malevolence.

“It’s not that simple,” Sorey says, refusing to back down “you could’ve earn that money some other way, what if he needed the money for something important?” he says “what if that’s all he had? What if—?”

“Well, if he needs the money so badly he will find a way to get more,” she interrupts with dismissive wave of her hand “and if he does need it so badly, that’s not my goddamn problem.” Velvet says with finality.

There’s a moment of stunned silence.

“You can’t be serious,” Sorey answers after a moment, truly appalled at her words “you can’t just go around doing whatever you want without thinking of the consequences, that’s…that’s selfish and wrong! If everyone acted like that there would only be chaos! It’s not right”

Velvet laughs humorlessly at his words.

“I get it,” she says with an infuriating tone of condescension “I get it, you’re a goodie two shoes and you can’t handle this, I get it, really, but I’ll tell you what,” she gets closer to him but Sorey doesn’t back down and they stare intensely into each other’s eyes “sometimes you can’t stop to think about what’s right or wrong, you just have to act….but I can understand if the gracious Shepherd is so above all that.”

“Then I can understand,” Sorey answers firmly “if the Lord of Calamity can’t bother herself with morality.”

By how jumpy and careful he had been around her, Velvet didn’t expect Sorey to hold her gaze or his argument with such intensity, but at the end here he is, staring down at her and protecting his ideals of what is right and wrong. She doesn’t give a damn about any of that.

“I certainly can’t,” she says coldly and turns around.

She walks out of the alleyway and Sorey watches her go. It takes him a moment too long to realize what they’re doing and, when he notices it, she’s long gone.

“Oh, heavens,” he groans as he leans on the wall and lets himself slip to the floor.

Maybe making them traveling companions wasn’t that good of a plan, eh Maotelus? Sorey thinks bitterly.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gasps* what will be of our protagonist now? find out in the next episode!
> 
> god, i'm having problems with Sorey character and it shows, i think, like i know what i want to do with him and where i'm going with it but i feels he's kinda hard to grasp?? specially in the circumstances i've put him lol, this is all my fault
> 
> Anyway, what do you guys think of this chapter? did you see this argument coming? bc i didn't lol in the drafts this chapter was going to go in a different route but i saw the chance to spice it with some conflict and i took it, how will they sort out their differences? we'll see!
> 
> Also, next chapter we'll meet with a familiar face! Who do you think it will be?
> 
> Thanks to everyone leaving reviews, they keep me motivated to write this thing, so thank you <3 <3 
> 
> Thanks for reading, every your comment will be appreciate! <3


	6. Chapter 6

Sorey takes a few minutes to wallow in his own stupidity and then decides to go look for Velvet, which is really going to be a titanic task.

Ladylake is a big city and with the pass of the years the number of people here have seem to increase, if Ladylake is like this then he can’t imagine how much more humans will be at Lastonbell or Pendrago. He’s in the middle of an ocean of people that come and go, uncaring of his problems and unable to help him, even if they cared.

He wanders around the streets of Ladylake, trying to don’t get too caught up in all the details there is to see. A lot of the buildings have been remodeled, he notices, with more floors being added to them, possibly to accommodate all the inhabitants. At the center of the city the change has been done with care, respecting the architectural style of the old constructions, but closer to the periphery of the city, the modifications have been done with a lot less grace, where the houses have been enlarge with wood rather than with stone and with little to none order.

The first time he came to Ladylake he didn’t have time to wander around its more hidden streets and alleys, and he spent the majority of his time at the noble and commercial district, so he has no idea if this part of the city has always been like this or if this is a new thing.

After walking for an hour and having covered what feels like an insignificant speck of the city, Sorey decides that he’s not going to find Velvet like this. He wonders if she’s gonna look for him too or he’s the only one hanging to…to whatever they have.

They aren’t friends, at all, they have just met and they’ve been cautious around one another, and even if they agreed to travel together the arrangement was done mostly because Maotelus urged them to.

Perhaps it would’ve been better if they started this journey on their own. If Sorey thinks about it, this was actually a very probable outcome and there’s no way Maotelus couldn’t have known that their views of the world would inevitably clash.

He was a Shepherd and she was a Lord of Calamity, obviously you can’t simply put them together in a room and hope that they get along just fine.

Walking with a downcast gaze, Sorey ends up in a small bridge that passes over one of the innumerable streams that cross Ladylake. He leans on the railing and watches the water go, getting lost in its constant movement and its quite murmur.

He believes in what he said to Velvet, that there was no need to rob that poor guy and that she shouldn’t have retorted to such practices. She said that it was necessary but it wasn’t, it isn’t like she’s all alone in the world, without anyone to help her or guide her.

 Granted, the food and the clothes he brought her were pretty much stolen, but he really doesn’t have another choice, people can’t see him or hear him, he doesn’t have the means to ask for people’s help or return their favors.

Velvet does have that choice and she must know it, she must be aware of that, she showed him at the small village in the woods that she knows how to be a decent human being.

Maybe that’s what bothers Sorey the most, that for whatever reason she decided to act selfishly, to do the wrong thing, when she clearly is capable of not doing that. He doesn’t think he will be able to deal with that if they keep traveling together, and it has nothing to do with him being the _gracious Shepherd_.

He scoffs at the thought. That also bothered him a lot, he’s not the Shepherd anymore and his views of the world don’t depend exactly on the fact that he was the Shepherd. In truth, his human-self let slide a lot more than what feels capable of letting slide now.

If Velvet is gonna act like this, maybe they can’t really keep traveling together.

The thing is, he muses sadly, he doesn’t really want to do this alone, not at all. He doesn’t want to face the truth on his own and he can’t imagine Velvet would want that either. More importantly it doesn’t sit right with him just abandoning her here to her luck, when, how things are, he’s pretty much all she has.

He doesn’t want to be alone and he can’t leave her alone. Loneliness it’s a terrible thing, after all, he knows that, so even if it’s mostly for his own sake and peace of mind, he’s gonna look for her and ask her if she wants to stay with him.

If she does, Sorey thinks, they can talk about all this and work something out. And if she doesn’t…then she doesn’t.

After coming to that resolution Sorey stirs up and puts his hands on his hips, looking determinately at the city. New found resolve or not, he’s still at square one, with a huge city, a missing girl and his incapability to communicate with anyone.

He looks around, thinking on how to solve this and his eyes wander to the Sanctuary, towering over the city just a little lower than the Palace. Maybe he can find someone that can see him there, he knows there’s a seraph at least, he felt a domain when they entered Ladylake.

Sorey takes a deep breath and nods, walking with conviction towards the Sanctuary.

* * *

It takes a while for Velvet to eventually calm down and realize just what she’s doing. Walking around the unknown city it’s mostly the cause of her coming down of her spark of fury.

She slows her pace carefully, looking around at the sights. For the number of shops, people and the uproar of activity all around her she guesses she must be at the commercial district, around the center of the city if the Sanctuary and the Palace nearby are anything to go by. She looks for a quiet spot in the middle of the hassle and ends up sitting in a bench outside a shop.

Velvet stays there for a moment, seeing the people come and go. Nothing seems to have change much, she thinks, about the way humans are, about the things they do; this she sees in front of her, the conversations she hears, it’s all the same it was in her time, she could as well be sitting at any of Loegres’ streets.

If anything, the only difference is that people now don’t seem afraid. They don’t carry with them the exhaustion and incertitude they did back in her day, when the deamonblight robbed them of their peace of mind.  There’s a certain cheeriness in the air, a tranquility that contrasts with how busy the streets are.

These people don’t know what it’s to be afraid, Velvet thinks, they don’t know what it’s to live with the incertitude of not knowing if they will survive the day, they probably take for granted their easy, bountiful lives.

It’s the only difference she can find in them but it’s a big enough to make her pause and contemplate. 

She takes out the stolen pouches of money and discretely counts the gald inside. It really isn’t much, she notices with a sigh, passing the worn down coins between her fingers, probably enough for her to buy something to eat and maybe spend a night at the inn, but not for buying traveling supplies or her so desired equipment.

Putting the money inside the pouches again and watching the people in the streets, she considers what Sorey told her.

Velvet didn’t want to be a criminal, ever. Aball was a small town, small and far away from more flourishing communities, encased in the woods, its people had to fend for themselves because no one else was going to. The people of Aball believed in hard work and Velvet was raised like that: work for herself, for her family and for her community. Everyone had a duty and no matter how small or insignificant it may seemed, it was important for the well-being of the whole town.

Criminal activity wasn’t tolerated in Aball, the town had already too much to deal with to add petty crimes to the list. Velvet was raised like that too.

And then The Advent happened and whatever moral lessons she was ever taught, they weren’t important anymore. She wasn’t even human now, how could she pretend to hang to a human understanding and practice of morality when she was a monster, even more so when she was a monster with thirst for revenge.

Whatever she ever believed or was taught about right and wrong didn’t matter anymore, if anything the knowledge only served as a reminder of how much she had lost and how much she was ready to sacrifice for Artorius’ blood.

The thing is…she’s human again.

She never enjoyed her acts of villainy, all she did she did so with an uncaring detachment, because what she was doing was with the greater purpose of defeating the Abbey and killing Artorius, they were necessary steps to reach her goals, not an end on themselves.

It had been almost a reflex to threaten the guy and robbed him. It certainly had felt like she was doing something necessary for her survival. The moment she felt herself cornered in the carriage it had felt like she was still a thousand years back, like she was still fighting an impossible war with the world, like she already was a member of the underworld and the possibility of being thrown to the guards was the worst thing that could happen. It had felt like, once again, she had to fend for herself using anything and anyone.

That is not the case. Even if nothing erases her crimes, even if there’s still blood on her hands, in the eyes of the world she’s just an innocent young woman.

She should take advantage of that to leave all her past mistakes behind but she can’t, she just can’t forget all she did and move on. But she can’t retort to her old ways either because…she’s human, and she’s not above right and wrong anymore.

Not like she ever truly was but the lack of humanity really makes you think things differently.

She weights the small sacks of gald in her hands and thinks maybe Sorey was right.

She never wanted to be a criminal before, she doesn’t one to be one now…not without a real motive, at the very least.

With that in mind, she looks around and wonders how she’s going to find Sorey or if Sorey even wants to be found. It would be understandable that he wouldn’t want her around, he condemns what she did and she doesn’t care about it, at least not in the way he would want her to.

Velvet gets up with a sigh. She’s not gonna know what he thinks about this if she doesn’t ask him, so she decides to go look for him, even if the task seems unfathomable in this big, unknown city. But if he doesn’t want her company anymore she would rather know it now.

She decides to retrace her steps to see if she can go back to where they argued, maybe Sorey is still there, and gets out of the commercial district. She ends up walking some solitary street but soon it becomes apparent that she really doesn’t know where she’s going.

Cursing, she decides to go to the Sanctuary, Sorey is a malak so maybe he went there, who knows what holy business he may have there.

While she’s walking she encounters a group of people in an alley. Three men are surrounding a young woman, it looks they’re mugging her and she’s on her knees, begging. Velvet walks by pretending she didn’t see anything because maybe she doesn’t want to be a criminal but that doesn’t mean she wants to be a hero.

Just when she’s about to turn in the corner and leave the people be, there’s a scream:

“This is your last chance, Adeline!”

Velvet pauses and goes back with silent steps. Discreetly she sticks out her head from the corner and looks:

And there it is, a twenty year old younger version of Cecily.

It had to be her luck, Velvet laments, and goes into the alley.

The advantage of surprise makes the whole thing go smoothly and fast. Before the men can make sense to what is happening, Velvet has already take out one of them by hitting him in the head with the handle of her sword and leaving him out cold.

“Who the hell are you?!” one of them screams at her, unsheathing his sword.

The other man follows suit and soon she has two blades point in her direction. Adeline is on the floor, looking at them with big, terrified eyes but stays out of it.

Velvet doesn’t answer. Looking at the men she can tell they probably don’t have proper training and for their general appearance they can’t be more than petty thugs.

“You will leave this girl alone,” Velvet declares “if you don’t want to end like your friend there.” She’s not even pointing her sword at them, keeping it point at the floor but ready in her hand if the situation arise.

Untrained as they are, however, they can obviously tell Velvet isn’t messing around. They’re tense and they look alternately between her and their passed out comrade.

They exchange a look.

“We have business with her,” one of them explains, trying to avoid confrontation “stay out of this, this isn’t of your concern!”

“She has a debt, we’re merely doing our jobs.” The other clarifies.

 “I didn’t ask you what you were doing,” Velvet barks and takes step towards them. One backs up, the other keeps his stance, barely “I said you’re leaving her alone. Now.”

“This is between her and us,” the one that didn’t back up says with more conviction “stay the hell out of it!”

He lashes out and tries to attack Velvet. Emphasis on “tries” since Velvet easily deviates his sword with her own and kicks him the face, throwing him on the ground. The other man also makes his attempt but he’s slow and clumsy and misses her with her having to do nothing, so she simply turns to him and kicks him too.

The first man gets up with a bloody nose and charges again, but stops dead in his tracks when he feels Velvet’s sword at his neck, under his chin.

“Now, you will leave this girl alone,” Velvet says coldly again.

The other man gets up and seeing what’s happening he takes the smart choice.

“This isn’t over!” He exclaims at Adeline and runs away.

“Seems he’s not as stupid as he looks,” Velvet comments “are you?” she says to the man at her blade.

He curses under his breath and looks at her like expecting to kill her with his eyes, but eventually drops his sword.

“You better watch your back, Adeline,” he says as he slowly backs up.

He takes the passed out man and leaves in a hurry.

When they’re gone Velvet sheaths her sword and turns to look at Adeline. She’s still kneeling, looking at her with big eyes and dried tears on her cheeks.

“Wha— what did you do?” Adeline says with a thin voice “they, they will never leave me alone now, they will kill me, they—!”

“Are you Cecily’s daughter?” Velvet interrupts her “from the town in the woods near the mountains, west of here?”

The girl’s eyes get even bigger.

“Yes, Cecily is my mother, did, did she send you?!” she exclaims, getting up in jump “Are you a mercenary? Did my mom send you to find me?” she tries to take Velvet by the shoulders but Velvet backs up.

“Hey, settle down,” she commands and Adeline stays still, her hands clasping the skirt of her dress “let’s go somewhere more intimate and then you can tell me why you haven’t write to your mother in months.”

“Ye—yes,” she stutters and fidgets in her place “let’s go to my shop, we, we can talk there.”

“Lead the way.”

Adeline nods and then guides Velvet through the streets.

* * *

They go back to the center of the city but they don’t go there at all. Adeline takes them to a small street parallel to the main road, where smaller, less busy shops side the street. They stop in front of a forge and Adeline opens the door with shaky hands.

Inside there are very few swords and spears, some arrows and shields adorn the walls and a lonely set of armor sits on the back. The shop itself seems a little abandoned, with so little on display.

“You’re a blacksmith?” Velvet asks, looking around.

“I am, yes,” Adeline says, going behind the counter to drag a small bench for Velvet “please, take a sit, I’ll be back in a moment.”

Adeline disappears through the stairs in the back and takes her sweet time doing whatever she’s doing. Velvet wanders around the shop, checking the equipment and noticing it’s quite good. She takes a plain looking longsword, draws it and swings it around, finding the balance impeccable and the small carvings in the handle in good taste, whatever simple they are.

When Adeline comes back she’s carrying a tray with two cups of tea and a plate with cookies. She puts it over the counter and Velvet goes take a seat.

“So,” Adeline says nervously “What’s your name?”

“I’m Velvet.”

“All right, Velvet, did my mom send you here?”

“More or less,” Velvet answers “she told me you came to the city a few years ago but that you haven’t written her in months. She’s worried about you.”

She doesn’t try to sound accusatory but Adeline still looks like a kicked puppy, with her eyes on the floor and twisting the skirt of her dress.

“I would imagine so,” Adeline nods “I wish I could tell her I’m alright but…my situation is complicated.”

“Because you’re in debt?” Velvet guesses “what does that have to do with writing to your mother?”

Adeline shakes her head and sighs.

“It’s complicated.”

“Tell me.”

Adeline sighs again.

“Is my mother paying you?” she asks instead “did she hire you to take care of me?”

“I’m simply repaying a favor,” Velvet answers sincerely “your mother helped me when I needed help, I owe her.”

Adeline looks hard at her, like she’s doubting her word, but at the end she simply laments herself.

“Well, I’ll probably be dead soon, so what does it matter?” She says dramatically “All right, as you can see I’m a blacksmith,” she starts explaining “I have a permit to have my own shop but the trader guilds at town have been having a power struggle as of late and are trying to get as many business as possible under their control. One of them, the Brightsotnes wanted me to be part of their guild but I refused, I wanted to stay away from such conflicts. They were very insistent, to the point they even threatened me and made up rumors about my shop but then, another trader guild, the Silverflags came to my aid.”

Adeline takes a moment to compose herself and takes a long sip of her tea, her eyes on the floor.

“They told me the Brightstones had been doing the same to other business and that they had lost a number of associates that way. They offered me to sign a contract with them, were it would say I couldn’t do business with other guilds besides them, but without really being part of their guild so I wouldn’t need to trouble myself with the taxes and so for. I would still operate as I had been doing, but I could show it to the Brightstones and they would leave me alone.”

“Did you even read the contract?” Velvet asks, because she doesn’t believe this girl can be that stupid.

“Of course I did!” Adeline exclaims, a little offended “even if the contract wasn’t the smartest business move, I needed to get the Brightstones out of my back, and the Silverflags seemed sincere on their intent. The contract was all right, there was nothing weird about it so I signed it. At the start everything was okay, when the Brightstones came knocking to my door I showed them the contract and they left me alone but…a few weeks later the Silverflags came demanding I pay them a debt, and then showed up with a contract that said they had lend me a loan and that I was already behind in the payments…I don’t know how they did it, but it had my sign and when I tried to take it to the law no one would heard me since it had my sign.”

Adeline buries her face in her hands.

“The interests are also exorbitant, for every month that passes I owe them more,” she says with a muffled voice “I stopped writing to my mother when they told me that If I didn’t pay they would have my family doing so, I even told the Turtlez to stop bringing me her letters, so they couldn’t find her…” She puts her hands down and looks at the floor with redden eyes “I tried to pay them with my work and they took it, but it isn’t enough to cover the amount and I can’t do enough weapons or armor to pay them and sell, so…I’m stuck.”

She looks like she may start crying at any moment and Velvet doesn’t want to deal with that right now.

“Is there any way you can think of to make a bunch of money?” Velvet asks dryly, before the waterworks get going.

None of this is her business and considering her own problems she probably should stay out of this, but she’s in debt to Cecily and this is a problem Adeline can’t solve by herself. Besides, at the moment the guild has only been threatening her, but who knows what else they would do to her if this keeps up.

“What do you mean?” Adeline lifts her head. “If I could do that I wouldn’t be having this problem.”

Velvet rolls her eyes.

“I mean a way that you can’t use, but maybe I can.”

Adeline bites her lips, thinking.

“In Lakehaven Heights, there’s this big monster called rhybgaro, its horn it’s really valuable since it’s hard and shines like a gemstone, and jewel makers buy it for high prices, but the beast is almost impossible to hunt, it hides well and it’s pretty strong, you would need a group of ten men at least to have a chance.”

Doing the almost impossible is the kind of thing Velvet is used to, so the story doesn’t faze her. She will hunt a couple of those beasts, sell their horns and give the money to Adeline, simple, however…if the guild could produce a contract with her sign, they’re likely to pull this again.

“Not only that,” Adeline continues “but you need a hunting permit to hunt in Lakehaven Heights, and they don’t give those just to anyone.”

A hunting permit, Velvet thinks, what kind of idiocy, one hunts to eat, to wear, to survive, why would the government handicap their citizens like this.

In any case, whatever obstacles she may find Velvet has already made up her mind about this.

“I’ll bring you the money,” she says to Adeline with confidence.

“What?” Adeline sighs “Aren’t you listening to me? How do you pretend to do that?”

“That’s none of your concern,” Velvet tells her “I’ll take care of this mess so you can write to your poor mother.”

At Cecily mention Adeline’s lips quiver, but she doesn’t cry.

“Is she alright?”

“She’s fine, just worried sick thinking you’re dead,” Velvet answers and Adeline flinches.

“I see,” Adeline says “how…how could I ever repay what you’re doing for me?” she asks.

Velvet considers this and looks around the shop.

“Do you think you can make me a gauntlet with a retractable blade?”

“Ah, yes, those aren’t very common but I know how to make them…”

“And a pair of greaves too,” Velvet says, standing up and walking towards the longsword she saw before “start making them and give them to me when all this is over.” She takes the sword and swings it a little “Meanwhile, I’ll be borrowing this, I’ll need a decent sword if I want to hunt those things.”

“The one you’re carrying looks pretty decent already.” Adeline comments “Fine craftsmanship.”

“It’s not mine,” Velvet says “and it’s more fit to adorn a wall than to kill a man, so I’ll be taking this one for a while.”

“Kill a man?!” Adeline gasps.

Velvet pauses.

“Kill a rhybgaro.”

Adeline doesn’t look convinced, but doesn’t say more.

Velvet goes back to the counter, finishes her tea and eats a few cookies, even taking some for the way, since the food Cecily gave her is running out and she will probably be needing her stolen money for other things.

“You said you’re doing this for my mother,” Adeline says while Velvet stuffs her bag with cookies “but, are you a mercenary or…something?”

“I’m just a traveler.” She decides to say.

“I see,” Adeline says, clearly not buying it.

“Is okay if I spend the night here?” Velvet asks instead of trying to look less suspicious.

“Ah, yes, honestly I would prefer it, the Silverflags will probably try something after, well, after what happened in the alley.” She tries to don’t sound critical and fails miserably. Velvet doesn’t mind.

“All right. I have business to attend at the city, I’ll be back before sunset, if possible.” Velvet unties Sorey’s sword from her left hip and puts Adeline’s longsword there, accommodating Sorey’s at her right. 

“Okay.” Adeline sighs. She looks like she wants to say more but doesn’t stop Velvet when she steps out.

Once out of the shop Velvet searches the Sanctuary in the distance and heads there.

* * *

The Sanctuary hasn’t change much either, Sorey notices when he steps inside, if anything the inviting open door is the only obvious variance he finds from his last visit here. And, of course the lack of the Sacred Blade at the altar.

He walks slowly towards it, the thick carpet that covers the floors muffling his steps, no like the sound of it would alert the people in prayer, anyway. He can feel the domain is at its strongest now, so there’s definitely a seraph residing here. He guesses it must be Uno, the water seraph he asked to bless Ladylake when he first became the Shepherd.

When he climbs the small steps to the altar, however, there isn’t the sacred water he collected to use as Uno’s vessel, and in its place there’s a small stone carving. He would like to get closer to examine the carving properly, it seems fairly new but the small, curving details don’t look like something chisel and hammer could do. He keeps a good distance of it, however, since it’s pretty obvious a seraph is using it as a vessel and it would be disrespectful an inappropriate to approach just like that.

“Uh…” he says, unsure on how to start and keeping his voice low, like anyone else but the seraph could hear him “mmm, excuse me, Lord of the land, may I speak with you?”

There’s a small dot of light that comes out of the carving and then it disperses, giving rise the figure of a young woman.

“Who dares awaken me from my slumber?” she says in a flat tone, her eyes closed.

Sorey is too stunned to say anything and he simply stares. When the seconds stretch the young woman opens her eyes with a jaded sigh and then she, too, ends up speechless. But unlike Sorey, she recovers quickly and carefully composing a bored expression, says:

“Oh. It’s you.” Like it isn’t a big deal.

“Ed— Edna?” Sorey stutters, the only coherent thought he could grasp.

She looks older now, like a woman in her late twenties rather than a child entering puberty, though her figure is still thin and straight, lacking any major curves. She’s taller and her hair is longer but she still keeps it the same side ponytail and still wears the same black headband. Her clothes are pretty much the same too and in her hands she absently twirls her inseparable umbrella, the little normin spinning with it.

Edna smiles at him, discreet like most of her smiles always are, but sweet and full of sentiment.

“I knew it would be soon you would show up here,” she says, her tone betraying no particular emotion.

“You did?” he responds, slowly finding his words.

“Yes. Every seraphim could feel Maotelus awaking so it was obvious you would be awake too.”

“Of course,” Sorey says and looks at the floor.

Sorey wasn’t expecting to find any of his companions so soon and all the unwanted ponders that have plague his mind about their reunion come crashing on top of him.

He knows, he _knows_ , he should feel happy about having found Edna, of seeing her again, of seeing she’s well and good and that she’s even become a Lord of the land, that she’s helping humans regardless of her opinion on them.

He also knows what his human self would’ve done at seeing her, thinks human Sorey would’ve smile his brightest smile, would’ve jump to her encounter, and immediately ask her what she was up, try to catch up.

And it isn’t that he isn’t happy, he muses, carefully looking inside his heart and savoring the emotions he finds there. He’s glad at seeing her and her smile warms him up, makes him think of the time they traveled together and how close they were, the hardships they overcame, the decisions they took and the answers they found.

The problem is, perhaps, the past tense in all of that.

“My, it almost seems like you’re disappointed,” Edna comments at his silence “were you expecting to find someone else here? Is Lady Edna not to your liking, gentle Shepherd?”

“What? No!” Sorey exclaims quickly “It’s not that at all! It’s just…well, I really wasn’t expecting to see you here but…” he breaths deeply and tries to save his ponderings to some other time.

He looks at her, taking in the changes in her appearance. It’s weird, because even if her image is familiar is almost like he’s seeing her for the first time too: even weirder because he already knows so much about her. Still, while watching her, a smile creeps its way to his face, a sincere smile he notices with relief.

“I’m glad to see you, Edna, really.” He is, and it’s a small weight off his shoulders that he’s saying the truth.

“I’m glad too,” she says, smiling again “It’s been a long while, Sorey.”

It has been, hasn’t it? Sorey thinks, even though for him it was like the blink of an eye. But he can see the passage of time in her, now there’s a certain lightness to her that wasn’t there before, but he thinks he saw some of it by the end of their journey even if he didn’t have the opportunity to stay and see it bloom completely.

“But, I gotta say,” Sorey starts to don’t spend too much on his mind again “I wasn’t expecting to find you here, even less as the Lord of the land.”

“Don’t think much of it,” she says in a dismissive tone “I merely doing a favor.”

“What happened to Uno?”

“He left like a century ago, I don’t know how he endured it for so long, this job is terribly dull.”

“Then why did you take it?”

“A favor, aren’t you listening?” She closes her umbrella and hits the floor with the tip, to emphasize her words.

“A favor to whom?” Sorey asks, tilting his head to the side and wondering who Edna would hold is such high regard to do something like this for them.

She looks at him for a long second, like considering if she should tell him.

“Duh,” she finally exclaims “to you, silly,” and she pokes him with her umbrella.

“To me?” he exclaims, surprised at her answer and at the sudden attack to his ribs.

“Who else? When Uno left Maotelus’ blessing wasn’t up yet and I thought you were going to be such a pain if you woke up and there wasn’t a Lord of the land here.”

“Well, I mean, yeah, that would’ve worry me.” He’s glad that the world isn’t covered in malevolence anymore and even now he strives for peaceful coexistence between humans and seraphim, he really would’ve felt bad if upon arriving to Ladylake there wasn’t a blessing.

“So that’s why I’m here, doing this mind-numbing job. You should be thankful a seraph such as myself is troubling herself with human affairs.”

He laughs.

“Of course I’m thankful,” he says smiling “and I see you’re keeping this place up and running, so thank you, Lady Edna,” he bows a little, more like a reflex of what he used to do than anything else.

“Don’t do that, seraphim don’t bow to each other,” Edna pokes him again, this time in the head “thought I’m glad to see you still know your manners.”

She looks at him up and down, taking in the sight of the changes in his appearance too, which really aren’t much besides his hair.

“How does it feel?” she asks him “Being a seraph, I mean.”

“I though you would know,” Sorey offers with a mischievous smile.

“Don’t get smart with me,” she says, and pokes him again “you know what I mean.”

Does he?

Suddenly, there’s a shift in the air and Sorey feels this conversation isn’t as shallow as he thought it was. Edna has always have a deep, wise gaze, it was mismatched with her youthful appearance before, it could be a little unnerving even. Now it looks a little more appropriate in her older face, though there’s still something not so right about it and her all-knowing eyes put him on edge.

“It’s been…” he says slowly, trying to get a grasp of the mess in his head “quite the change, to be honest. The world is different, I mean, it feels different.”

“Just the world?” Edna asks with an inquisitive gaze.

She says it like it’s a small thing, like perceiving everything that surrounds him in a different way from the one he always knew isn’t that important.

And maybe it isn’t.

“I…think so.” He finally murmurs.

When it’s obvious Sorey won’t be adding more, Edna sighs and looks away.

“Well, I would expect you, of all people, to just roll with it,” she comments and opens her umbrella, putting it over her shoulder. “You were looking for the Lord of the land, I assume you need something?”

Sorey is so damn thankful for the change of subject his whole body relaxes visibly. Edna catches eye of this but makes no comment.

“Well, you see, I’m traveling with someone, a friend…sort of. In any case, we had an argument and got separated and now I’m trying to find her, but the city is too big and it’s not like I can ask anyone if they’ve seen her.”

“I can search with you, if you want,” Edna offers “I would rather be doing anything than sitting here all day.”

“Yeah, I would appreciate that,” he says and considers carefully his next words “the thing is, she’s human and I’m not sure she’s gonna want to be found?”

Edna looks at him like she’s already pretty done with this bullcrap…and they have just been talking for like five minutes.

“I know, I know,” Sorey says apologetically “if it’s too much of a problem you don’t have to—“

“I don’t know what’s stranger,” Edna says like he didn’t say anything “that you met a human with resonance or that you, of all people, had such a bad fight that she won’t want to see your face ever again.”

Sorey grimaces.

“It wasn’t that bad of a fight,” Sorey explains “it’s just…we have very strong opinions on the matter.”

“What was the fight about?”

Sorey sighs.

“Morality.”

“Wow,” Edna flatly exclaims.

“I know, just…” he looks at the side, his eyes sad “I don’t know if she will want to keep traveling with me, but I don’t want to just abandon her and leave without clarifying all of this.”

“Of course,” Edna says with understanding “let’s get going then, we’re gonna have to scout the whole city to find her. How exciting. Any idea where she could be by now?”

Prison, Sorey thinks a little too cynically for his own taste.

“Perhaps around the commercial district? She did want to do some shopping.”

“All right then, lets head off.”

* * *

When Velvet arrives to the Sanctuary she finds it predictably empty. There’s some people praying, as well as some priests, and in the altar there are offerings, food and a multitude of items she guesses no malakhim would find especially useful, but there are no signs of Sorey.

She walks around the temple in small, measured steps, looking around the place. She gets a few stares, probably because she’s carrying weapons in sacred ground, but she pays them no mind.

She’s not fond of churches. In Aball the most similar thing to a holy place was the shrine over the cape, but no one knew why it was sacred anymore and there was only respect and no worship to offer there. After The Advent, temples and sanctuaries became synonymous of Artorius and his cause, and she hated the false purity inside them, the faith founded on her brother’s blood.

Now, she tries to don’t let that feelings take hold of her. As far as she knows, after all, this is Laphicet and the other’s Empyreans church, not Innominat’s and not Artorius’.

Velvet offers no prayers and leaves the place in a rather unceremonious manner, earning more stares from the locals, and decides to go wait outside at the Sanctuary’s atrium.

She can’t be sure if Sorey will ever show up here, but it’s the best lead she has. She waits patiently for some time, eats Adeline’s cookies and looks at the people come and go. After an hour or so, she decides she’s unlikely to find Sorey like this.

Stepping out from the atrium Velvet heads for the commercial district again. She cannot think of anything at the moment that will help her to get to Sorey, but maybe she would do well in concentrating in the whole thing with Adeline. She’s gonna ask around to see what she needs to get the damn hunting permit or, if it comes down to it, if there’s someone who can help her get one with less paperwork in the way.

Perhaps she will eventually come across Sorey.   

* * *

The sun is setting when Edna and Sorey finally stop looking. They’re outside the Aqueduct, looking at the lake and how the colors of dusk shine over its surface. The searching has been unsuccessful and Sorey feels dejected at the results, even though he knew from the beginning it was unlikely that they would find her so soon.

Besides, more than a search, their stroll through town was more like an amiable walk. Sorey finally found it in himself to strive for conversation so he asked Edna why exactly she decided to became a Lord of the land, and what she had been doing during all the time that had passed.

Edna said, with a sincerity that didn’t come as easily to her when he first met her, that she meant when she said she became a Lord of the land as a favor to him and that, considering all the hardships they had to overcame and his own sacrifice for the good of the land, she didn’t want his efforts, hers or anyone else’s to go to waste.

She didn’t do much in particular after he went to sleep. She remained as Lailah’s sub-lord for as long as Rose was the Shepherd, but she didn’t desire to continue down that path for long so, when one of Rose’s Squires took upon the mantle, she stepped down and simply aided the Shepherd here and there, sometimes serving as a diplomatic of sorts with other seraphim.

Sorey was moved at hearing that. He was a little overwhelmed even at Edna telling him all she did for their cause, that she kept him in her thoughts and that she ended up struggling too for a world in which seraphim and humans could live in peace, that she upheld his vision and all they worked so hard for.

He wanted to thank her, he attempted to do so but she stopped him rather forcefully:

“No need to thank me. It was the answer I found, too,” she said, eyes down the street.

Sorey had smiled and nodded.

He had wanted to ask her about Rose and Alisha, or if she knew where Lailah and the others were at the moment, but had decided against that, at least for the time being. He wants to concentrate on finding Velvet and solving their problems first before doing any plans about where to go next.

Now, watching the sunset, he wonders if he still should count Velvet on said plans.

“Well, that was a waste of time,” Edna remarks, twirling her umbrella.

“You think?” Sorey says, disappointed.

“I do.” Edna answers without missing a beat “Since we are on the wasting time thing, why don’t you tell me more about your friend, where did you meet here?”

Sorey looks over the lake and thinks how to answer that. While they were walking around the city he told her what Velvet looks like so she could keep an eye out for her, but besides that and her name, he didn’t say much. Edna had made a face when she heard the name Velvet and mentioned it was a curious one, Sorey didn’t understand why she would say that, Velvet wasn’t that strange of a name.

“Well…” he says, dragging the word a little while he thinks about how to answer her.

It occurs to him that he doesn’t really know how old Edna is. He thinks she may have been around in Velvet’s time but has no way to know if she knows about what went down back then. He’s not sure how to explain the whole thing either and Velvet probably doesn’t want him to go around divulging what he knows about her. Lying is his best option at the moment.

He was never a good liar as a human, so time to test his luck as a seraph.

“I met her in small village near Artorius’ Throne,” he says, easily enough “she has very strong resonance and she was about to set on a journey around the world, so we decided it was best to travel together rather than do it on our own.”

Edna hums in contemplation, watching over the lake with a bored expression.

“That’s all?” she inquires.

“Yep,” he says “where you expecting something more exciting?”

“Not really,” she shakes her head “but since you guys are already getting into philosophical discussions about morality, I assumed she was more than just a girl from a backwater village.”

He feels there’s more to just that to her words, but Edna is pretty hard to read and even now Sorey can’t quite put his finger on it.

“She’s just that,” he decides to say and that is, he thinks, not a lie at all.

“Anyway, if we want any hope of finding her, I think it’s time for me to lend you my secret weapon.”

“Secret weapon?”

“Yes,” she nods, turns around and starts walking expecting him to follow, “let’s go to the noble’s district, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

“Oh? And this person will help us find my friend?” he asks, coming to her side.

“Maybe.”

Edna doesn’t say more and when Sorey asks who this person is, she simply doesn’t answer, like she didn’t hear him. He sighs, but follows suit without another word.

* * *

It turned out that getting the hunting permit in a legal way was going to be more trouble than it was worthy.

Velvet found out there are two ways to do it, one would be going directly to a notary’s office and ask for one, but for that she would need proof that she is a citizen of the Kingdom of Hyland, more specifically of Ladylake, pay a fee of five thousand gald, pass a fighting test to prove she wouldn’t (easily) get herself killed out there, and wait two to three months for the permit to get approve.

She had felt overwhelmed when the woman in the notary’s office told her of that, giving her a pamphlet with all the information so she could get everything ready for the next time she came. Velvet wasn’t going to set foot there ever again. She still believes needing a hunting permit is the most ludicrous thing she has ever heard and seeing all the paperwork it entitles she feels even more appalled at the idea.

The other way there is to get the permit, is to get affiliated to a hunting guild. Velvet found the headquarters of one and went to see if they were recruiting. They were, but they also asked for papers to prove her identity and they explained to her she would need to work under assignments, meaning she couldn’t just go and hunt whenever and whatever she wanted if it wasn’t a job for the guild. So no luck there either.

After her unsuccessful findings, Velvet went back to the Adeline’s shop, arriving a lot later than she had anticipated, and now she’s on the upper floor of the building helping her accommodate a couch for Velvet to sleep in.

Adeline lives in small room over her shop, the place looks just as empty and sad as the shop so Velvet guesses she must have sell some of her furniture to try and pay her debts. Despite that, the few pieces of furniture are nicely arrange and unlike the shop here is clean and well kept.

Once Velvet’s improvised bed is ready, Adeline offers her something to eat despite being way too late to have dinner and both of them eat in silence, Adeline sitting in her bed and Velvet in the sofa, a small table between them. Outside it’s already dark and the silence of the night creeps around them.

“You said my mom helped you out,” Adeline says after a while “how did you meet her?”

Velvet leaves her plate over the table and leans on the couch.

“I got lost in the woods around your town and when I came out of the forest hungry and not knowing where I was, your mother offered me a place to stay and something to eat. She also gave me all this,” she points at the bag over her feet “and she said she was worried about her daughter and I was already coming to Ladylake so,” Velvet shrugs.

“I see…” Adeline nods carefully. Velvet has the impression she doesn’t believe her completely, which is fine and an expected reaction considering how she was scammed so recently. “Yes, that sounds like my mother,” she says at the end.

Velvet guesses she should say something to ease her worries but nothing comes to her mind. They have dinner in silence and soon after they’re getting ready for bed. Adeline changes into her sleeping garments but Velvet doesn’t even take off her shoes, knowing the trader guild may try something.

Adeline puts out the lights and she falls sleep quickly, probably exhausted with this whole ordeal. Velvet stays awake for a long while, unable to fall sleep and sits on the couch instead of laying down.

At some point of the night, when Velvet is finally finding her way into the oneiric realm, she hears voices outside the house. She gingers up immediately and walks over to the window, at the head of Adeline’s bed. Velvet pushes the curtains to the side and looks.

On the street there’s some sort of commotion, a number of guards are talking with someone in the shop at the other side of the street.

“What…what is it?” Adeline mumbles, stirring up “is the Silverflags?!” she exclaims as she gets on her knees over the bed.

“I don’t think so,” Velvet answers silently “they’re some guards on the street, that’s all.”

Adeline pushes the curtains too and looks outside.

“Those are royal knights,” Adeline says “they only work around the Palace, something must have happened.”

“Then it has nothing to do with us,” Velvet says, satisfied with that information, and gets back to the couch.  

Adeline doesn’t go back to sleep and neither does Velvet. After a while, there’s a knock on the door downstairs.

“Let’s go see what they want,” Adeline sighs and gets up “aren’t you coming?”

There are more knocks, more insistent this time. Velvet thinks about it and decides against it, even if she doesn’t have a reason to hide from the royal knights, she would rather not interact with them.

“I’ll stay” Velvet answers.

Adeline nods and disappears downstairs.

The voices of the knights and Adeline come easily in the middle of the night’s silence but Velvet only catches pieces of the conversation. At some point, however, the voices come louder and it’s impossible to don’t hear Adeline’s alarmed tone.

“I—I assure you!” Adeline is saying “There’s no one here but me!”

Velvet gets up in jump and looks at the stairs.

“I’m sorry, miss, but we have to inspect the building.” A man’s voice says.

The heavy armored steps of the knights on the stairs is the only thing Velvet needs to decide she has to get out of here. She knows she doesn’t have anything to hide but the fact that Adeline is lying about her presence must mean something, whether if it’s for Adeline’s own sake or because she’s trying to protect her, Velvet can’t stay and find out.

She takes her bag and makes it for the window, but when she tries to open it the handle gets stuck. She pulls the handle it and twists it as hard as she can but the damn thing doesn’t gives up, and rather she ends up making a lot of noise with it. The steps of the knights get louder and quicker and Velvet gets desperate enough to consider breaking the window, so she lets go of the handle and steps back, reading herself to give the window her best kick.

“Stop right there!” a knight screams and Velvet, at mid run for the window, stops dead on her tracks.

She turns slowly and looks at the three knights heaped in the small room. Two of them are already pointing at her with their spears and Velvet knows she won’t be able to muscle her way out of this, not without wrecking Adeline’s house or without getting injured herself, she’s not properly equipped to fight full armored knights.

“Velvet Crowe?” the knight in the front asks.

Velvet frowns, because there’s no way anyone in this city would know her name.

“You have business with me?” she says, hoping to get some info.

“You will have to accompany us,” the knight says carefully.

As things are she really will have to, she doesn’t have much options left and even if she did, she’s curious as to how they know her name or why the royal knights would be looking for her.

“All right,” she sighs “where are we going?”

The knights don’t answers and come closer to her. In careful, calculated movements take her weapons away, Adeline’s and Sorey’s, and the one in charge binds her hands behind her back. They take her downstairs where Adeline watches in stunned silence how they drag her out of the house.

“Don’t worry,” Velvet tells her as she walks, thinking Adeline must be worried about how she will defend herself in the guild comes “I’ll come back soon.”

After all, she did escape from the most secure prison of her time, whatever dungeon they throw her in, it can’t be too bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, a rhybgaro lol
> 
> what do you guys think of this sidequest kind of thing going on in this chapter? I'm thinking if I should or not add more stuff like that in the subsequents chapters, but i wouldn't like to get too heavy on the OC and stuff, so what do you think?
> 
> also, this chapter came out a little longer than the others, and i was actually thinking of merging this chapter and the next, bc i don't like much the pacing in this one lol, but i didn't want to make you guys wait even more, so tell me would you prefer to get a long ass chapter even if it means waiting, idk, 3-4 weeks? or would prefer shorter chapters and 1-2 weeks between updates?
> 
> And also! kudos to Ming1080 for guessing who was going to appear! Still no talk about Eizen but I promise, we're getting there.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this! Thanks for reading every comment will be appreciate! <3


	7. Chapter 7

Sorey has no idea what they’re doing here. He found strange that they were going to the noble’s district and at first he thought they were going to stop at Alisha’s house, but when they passed in front of it Edna didn’t even turn to see.

He had stayed a few steps behind contemplating the manor. He wondered if Alisha’s descendants were there or if she even had had any children. He found himself wanting to go in, even if there was no one inside that could see him or recognize him. Perhaps he wanted to go in precisely because of that: it was a part of his life as a human, but there was nothing there that could really hinder him with the past.

Instead of going to Alisha’s house, Edna had guided him to the Palace. Sorey had asked her who they could possible meet inside it but Edna had just poked him with her umbrella and told him to shut up.

Now, after Edna transiting the intricate hallways of the Palace with familiar expertise, leaving Sorey in a room and telling him to stay put, he is here, alone, waiting patiently.

He guesses this room must be use precisely to have guests wait for audience or whatever reason they may have to come here, it’s like a cross between an office, a living room and a library. It’s long and spacious, the furniture is as opulent as he remembers and everything is in the blue tones of Hyland. The room is big enough to need three candelabras hanging for the high ceiling, the three are lit and the room is well illuminated, giving it a warm, comfortable feeling.

Even when the wait drags on he doesn’t dare leave the room, the Palace doesn’t exactly hold the most pleasant memories he has and he can feel, in whatever small quantity, that there’s malevolence here so he doesn’t want to wander around and risk encountering the source. Edna is probably okay because she has a vessel but he doesn’t, so better safe than sorry.

He makes himself comfortable since Edna is taking her sweet time doing whatever she’s doing. There’s a nearby bookshelf and he entertains himself with the books in it.

Eventually, Edna finally appears. He hears the door opening and puts down a book, turning around to see Edna’s secret weapon.

She enters the room with a young man at her side. He has fair skin, light, blond hair and his features are delicate, almost feminine. What catches Sorey’s attention, however, are the man’s eyes: they’re a pale shade of green and with his firm gaze, they result somehow familiar.

Also, the man is pretty much looking directly at him.

Sorey watches him attentively while he and Edna approach. The man comes to him wearing a big, almost childish smile on his face.

“Sorey,” Edna says when they stop in front of him “this is Chancellor Diphda. Chancellor, former Shepherd Sorey.” She introduces with a slight move of her hand.

Sorey looks at Edna and then back at the man, suddenly dazed.

“Aurik Diphda,” the man presents himself when Sorey doesn’t say anything, barely containing his excitement “it’s an honor to make your acquaintance, Shephard Sorey.”

“Uhm, the honor is mine,” Sorey says sheepishly, accepting the man’s firm handshake and taking in the revelation of his identity. “Diphda?” he asks, just to make sure.

Aurik laughs wholeheartedly and nods.

“Yes, Shepherd, Diphda. I understand you and my four-great grandmother were good friends.”

He certainly shares resemblance with Alisha, and more than his physical features it shows in the way he smiles, in how he presents himself with frankness. Sorey can already tell he’s a good man and not only that: there’s not even the smallest trace of malevolence in him. 

“Yes, we were really good friends,” Sorey nods.

“I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting my grandmother,” Aurik starts “but she made sure all her children and grandchildren would know of you, and all you did for our world. I’ve heard much about you, Shepherd Sorey.”

“Yeah, that…sounds like something she would do,” Sorey comments for lack of anything better to respond to that.

Sensing his sudden apprehension, Edna hawks lightly.

“I’m sure there’s a lot to discuss, but we came for another reason,” she says to Aurik.

“Ah, yes, forgive me for getting carried away,” Aurik says like the small talk he did was indeed a grave mistake on his part “Lady Edna tells me there’s something you need help with, Shepherd?”

“Yeah,” Sorey clears his throat, “I’m sorry to bother you with this but a friend of mine is…missing in the city.”

“Oh, that’s terrible.” Aurik laments with a frown.

“Well, not, missing exactly, more like we got separated and I don’t have the means to look for her by myself. She’s not familiar with the city and I’m worried she…may get herself into trouble.”

“I see, because you can’t ask around to find her.” Aurik smiles and nods “I will have a search party set out and bring her here,” he says with decision and walks towards a desk, producing a notebook, pen and an ink flask from it “please, tell me everything that will helps us find her.”

Aurik sits in the desk and writes down the thoroughly physical description of Velvet that Sorey gives him.

“Anything else?” he asks, when Sorey is done.

He thinks carefully about his next words. The search party will probably be a bunch of guards and Velvet may not take it well when they go for her.

“She is…,” Sorey starts, looking for a best way to phrase that Velvet is dangerous and has a problem with authority and may try to run away the moment she see the guards “tell the search party to be careful, she doesn’t like guards and may try something.”

Aurik looks at him with discerning eyes. Sorey hopes he doesn’t ask him what ‘something’ may entail.

“All right,” Aurik says slowly as he writes down some more “I’ll tell them to have the utmost care.”

“Thank you,” Sorey sighs.

“Oh, we almost forgot,” he exclaims “what’s your friend’s name?”

“Velvet, Velvet Crowe.”

At the other side of the room, Edna, who had planted herself in front of a window to watch the city while distractedly twirling her umbrella, gives out the quietest sigh:

“Oh, boy,” she exclaims at hearing that name.

* * *

Aurik goes out of the room, saying he will dispatch the search party immediately without paying any mind to Sorey telling him it can wait until morning; he’s pretty sure Velvet will be just fine spending one night alone at the city, but Aurik is eager to help.

After he’s gone, Sorey and Edna stay alone in the too big room. Edna closes her umbrella and goes sit at one of the couches. Sorey follows her.

“He sure is earnest, huh?” Sorey comments “kinda like Alisha.”

“Yes.” Edna answers with a nod “It drives me nuts but he’s pretty okay for a human. I like him.”

“Are you two friends?”

“More or less. I’ve known him since he was a child and sometimes he asks me for advice, he has a lot of faith in the seraphim.”

“That’s good,” Sorey says smiling “if someone like him is the Chancellor, I guess Ladylake is good hands.”

Edna nods again and stays silent. She’s looking at him very carefully, like she’s calculating some ethereal quality in him and it puts him on edge, it looks like she’s seeing right through him and right now, Sorey doesn’t like the idea of her knowing too much about him. A weird thought, considering she is his friend, isn’t she?

“You know, Sorey,” Edna says, her sweet but flat voice creeping around him “there’s a lot of things I want to tell you. I guess, since you went to sleep I’ve had a lot of things I’d like to tell you.”

“I would imagine so,” he offers prudently.

“But, for now,” she continuous “I’d like to ask you one thing. You said that when you met your friend, _Velvet_ ,” she says the name with a weird infliction to her voice that Sorey doesn’t know how to interpret and he considers, for a moment, that maybe lying to her wasn’t that good of an idea “you said both of you were about to go in a journey across the world.”

She makes a pause and Sorey thinks she makes it so he can say something but he has nothing to add. Edna sighs discreetly at his silence.

“I want to know,” she says then “why are you on this journey to being with?”

That is not the question Sorey was expecting. It must be obvious why he would embark himself on such a journey, he missed centuries of the world passing by while he was sleep it’s evident he would want to see the changes for himself. It should be obvious too, that he would go and look for his friends, the ones that are still around at least.

It should be obvious.

Edna’s old, calculating eyes tell him otherwise. She wouldn’t be asking this if it really was and maybe it isn’t that obvious, not even for himself, considering how much it took him to decide to go out of the Throne to begin with.

“I want to see the world,” he says at last, almost tempting “the world we all created together and I want to see you guys too.”

“I see,” Edna says “so you’re going to look around for Lailah and Zavied.”

“Yeah, of course,” he nods, more confident this time.

“And for Mikleo too.”

Yes, of course, he wants to say but something like fear and confusion and even anger gets stuck in his throat and doesn’t let him talk. So he nods instead but even that small gestures appears half-hearted and doubtful and Sorey hates himself for it.

“All right,” Edna says in a tone that suggests nothing is all right “we can keep talking about this later.” She’s looking at him with a certain compassion and understanding she didn’t quite possessed before.  

“Okay,” Sorey agrees, thinking it would be indeed better to talk about this later, preferably never.

“Instead, let’s talk about your friend,” Edna continues and Sorey feels like he was just punched in the gut.

“What you want to know about her?” he asks too quickly, pretending nothing about this whole conversation is fazing him.    

“She seems quite the character,” Edna remarks “does she know you were the Shepherd?”

Once again, a question Sorey couldn’t have imagine that Edna would ask and which relevance he doesn’t want to understand at all.

“Yeah.”

“And she’s okay with it?”

What an incriminatory question, Sorey thinks.

“Why wouldn’t she?” He asks tilting his head, simulating he’s not getting it.

Edna looks at him dead in the eye with a neutral face of displeasure and Sorey starts sweating.

“You’re a terrible at this, you know that?” She says, jaded.

“Terrible at wha—?”

“Drop the act,” Edna demands and Sorey closes his mouth with a thud of his teeth “you’re lying to me and you’re not good at it.”

Obviously not. Sorey grimaces, feeling ashamed about it under Edna’s stern gaze.

“I’m sorry,” he sighs, truly apologetic “it’s just…I wasn’t sure how to approach this whole thing.”

It’s interesting to notice he isn’t sure if he’s talking about the whole thing with Velvet, or the whole other thing.

Edna watches him, musing something beyond Sorey’s comprehension.

“Since I’m a benevolent seraph I will let it slide,” Edna remarks, though by his stern face it doesn’t really look like she will.

Sorey nods energetically and puts his hand as in prayer in front of him.

“It won’t happen again,” he assures her, looking at the floor.

“Good,” Edna carries on. “Now, tell me about your friend, I want to know why she’s here, now.”

“You…you know who she is?”

“I know who she was.” Edna answers.

Sorey thinks this over.

“How did you know it was _that_ Velvet, though?” Sorey asks, truly intrigued. “I mean, it could’ve been just a girl with that name.”

“Because you can’t lie to save your life. There wouldn’t have been any need to lie to me if she was just a girl.”

“I guess,” he complies.

“So tell me,” Edna asks for the umpteenth time “why is she here? Did something happened?”

“Everything is fine. I’ll tell you what Maotelus told me, I take it you know about Innominat?”

“Yes.”

“And you know why he isn’t around anymore and there’s Maotelus instead?”

“At large.”

“All right,” Sorey sighs and dives into his explanation.

Edna listens attentively and without interrupting him while he repeats what Maotelus inferred about Velvet’s appearance. He tells her too that Maotelus wanted her to go and live her life and that since he was already going to go in a journey (he omits rather than lies of his insecurities about leaving) Maotelus put them to travel together. Everything was going relatively fine, Sorey tells her, until they got to the city and Velvet robbed a guy, Sorey couldn’t turn a blind eye to it and they got into an argument and here we are.

“I see,” Edna says with understanding “I’m glad. I had thought Innominat was back and the world was ending or something equally troublesome. That would’ve ruin my day.”

“No,” Sorey says with a smile “the world is fine and it will be like that for a long while, if seraphim such as yourself keep things up and running.”

“Flattery will take you nowhere,” Edna warns him, but she’s smiling “but I’ll let it slide, this once.”

Sorey laughs.

By then, the door opens. Aurik comes marching in with a smile and walks towards Sorey.

“Everything is being take care of,” he says “we should have news of your friend soon.”

“Thanks so much,” Sorey says, getting up “I’m really sorry to bother you.”

“Not at all, not at all,” Aurik dismisses with a gesture of his hand “I’m glad I can be of any help to you Shepherd Sorey, like my grandmother was.” He finishes with a warm smile.

The smile reminds Sorey tremendously of Alisha. It’s kind of a naïve smile, given to him in earnest and it in draws out in Aurik’s face the fascination he feels towards Sorey. It puts him a little nervous, that Aurik looks at him almost in reverence.

Sorey knows why he would feel like that towards him, if what he said it’s truth then Alisha made sure that her family would know of his deeds. However it feels almost inappropriate to be holder of such praise, when even if he’s the one that did all those things, even if he’s the one that changed the world, it isn’t really he who did at, not at all.

“You’re a lot of help,” Sorey decides to respond.

Aurik beams.

“Do you have a place to stay the night?” Aurik asks suddenly.

“Not really,” Sorey says. It hadn’t occurred to him until now to think about that.

“Then it’s settled!” Aurik exclaims “I’ll have a room arranged for you at the manor.”

Sorey thinks of refusing, but he guesses that’s better that whatever place he may find in the city and he wouldn’t want to ruin Aurik’s enthusiasm with a decline.

“Thank you,” he simply says.

“We shall go immediately then!” Aurik says happily “Will you be joining us, Lady Edna?”

“I’ll walk with you,” Edna says as she gets up “but I won’t be able to stay the night, I have to go back to the Sanctuary.”

They get out of the Palace and walk in silence the streets of the noble’s district. It’s late at night but there’s still plenty of activity and they encounter a number of people, some of them stop to greet Aurik and he seems to be well liked among them, though Sorey can’t help but notice some greet him with tight smiles and roll their eyes after they’re gone, sure no one can see them.

He guesses that it’s to be expected. He has never quite get the political world, but he knows it’s a intricate, messy one, and that it’s inevitable to wind up with a few enemies, so even if the world is at peace now it must be the same for Aurik. Alisha didn’t have it easy, being so far down in line for the throne and still getting so into politics, he wonders if Aurik had similar problems to become the Chancellor.

When they get to the manor, Edna bids them farewell at the house’s fence, saying she will come back in the morning.

“Goodnight, Edna,” Sorey says “and thanks for the help.”

“You’re welcome,” she answers “I’ll see you and your friend tomorrow morning.”

That sounds almost like an ultimatum but Sorey doesn’t let himself get too caught up on that.

Sorey follows Aurik to the manor’s interior. A butler comes greet them and asks Aurik if he would like to have something for dinner.

“Just some tea for me,” Aurik answers and then turns to Sorey “would you like to have something for dinner?”

The butler seems confused at first but he quickly recovers.

“Is Lady Edna accompanying us tonight?” he asks.

“No,” Aurik answer, smiling brightly “actually a friend of Lady Edna will be staying tonight. Please, have the guest room ready.”

“Yes, my Lord, anything else I can do for you?”

“So, about dinner…?” Aurik turns to Sorey.

“I’m fine,” Sorey shakes his head, but thinking it would be rude to decline he adds “but the tea sounds perfect.”

“Just the tea for now, our best blend for our guest.”

“As you wish, my Lord, excuse me.” The butler bows slightly and then it’s off to carry on his duties.

When he’s gone Aurik has him follow him.

“Does Edna come often?” Sorey asks while they walk.

“Not as much as I would like, to be honest,” Aurik answers in good spirits “between my work and hers there’s not much spare time, but she comes for supper every once in a while.”

“Is that so?” Sorey comments, smiling a little, he must be dear to Edna if she bothers to come to his house, even if she says otherwise. She always did like playing it cool. “And, doesn’t people find weird you can talk to seraphim?” he asks, thinking on the butler’s reaction to his presence.

“Well, some find it disconcerting,” Aurik admits with a slight frown “but most people have faith in the seraphim and they have no problems believing I can talk to them.”

They have arrive to their destination then. Aurik opens a double door to a cozy living room, floor covered with thick carpets and walls with bookshelves, at the back there’s a crystal door leading to the garden and in the middle there’s a lit chimney, casting dancing shadows over the couches and the center table in front of it.

Aurik invites him in and they take a sit. Once there, Sorey notices the large portray hanging over the fireplace and gets lost on it.

It’s a painting of Alisha. She looks older than when he met her, perhaps in her thirties, her hair is accommodated in a more discreet style, a ponytail at the back of her head rather than at the side, with a single bang of her curly hair falling on her forehead. She’s sitting in a large chair in the middle of a sober room, wearing a more modest version of her armor, sporting the blue of Hyland rather than pink. At her side, her spear rests on the chair’s back.

She’s not smiling but her expression isn’t stern either. She looks, in a way, just as he remembers: strong, earnest, sincere, and somehow innocent, but wiser too.

He stares at the painting for a long while, wondering.

At some point a maid comes in with a tray and serves the tea silently over the center table, only speaking to ask Aurik where to put the other cup and then leaving with a small bow.

Aurik holds his cup and takes a few sips before finally rising his voice over the quiet cackling of the fire:

“I wish I could’ve meet her,” he comments, staring at the painting too.

“I bet she would’ve like to meet you too,” Sorey smiles, dragging his eyes away from Alisha to look at Aurik “wasn’t it difficult to become the Chancellor? I remember the Council wasn’t fond of Alisha.”

“Indeed. They weren’t happy when I got a position in the Council, especially the older members, but even so I had the majority of the votes for the charge, if just slightly.”

“I see.” Sorey nods and looks at his cup of tea.

“I honestly think that my high resonance is part of the reason I got the job,” Aurik continues with a sad expression “the people like that about me, and even if I’m the Chancellor I don’t hold that much power. They wanted someone that could be the face of the Council, more than anything.”

Sorey contemplates this for a moment.

“Are you in line for the throne?” he asks.

“Yes, the farthest one can be for it but yes, I’m a prince and I can become King, but I don’t think that will be happening.”

“Then, why did you decide to get into politics?” Sorey says “As I understand you wouldn’t need to.”

Aurik puts down his cup and gets up.

“I didn’t, at all,” he answers as he walks towards one of the bookshelves “but I guess I couldn’t just sit down and live the easy life fate had given me. I’m ungrateful like that.” He laughs, mostly to himself and browses the bookshelf, picking one of the books “Even more so because I read this.”

Aurik goes to Sorey and hands him the book. The leather cover is old and it feels smooth under his fingers, worn out for all the times it was read. It doesn’t have a title on the cover so he opens it and it the first page it reads: Alisha Dipdha, memories.

“She wrote it herself,” Aurik explains “and it has been passed in the family ever since.”

Sorey passes to the second page and reads the dedicatory:

_For my Kingdom, which I love._

_For my Master, even still._

_For my Friends who held me when I couldn’t._

_For Sorey, all the adventures we didn’t have and all the dreams we’ll make come truth._

He smiles, sighs deeply, closes the book and turns to look at the painting again. He hasn’t seen much of the world yet, but he has seen Edna as the Lord of the Land, has seen a flourishing, peaceful city and has seen a good man as Chancellor of Ladylake and thinks, yes, look at all the dreams that have come truth, Alisha.

“You found inspiration in her words, I take it,” Sorey says, putting the book carefully on the table.

“I did,” Aurik nods “she really loved Hyland, and the world in general, and she did everything in her power to safeguard it. Reading all she went through…it really made an impact on me.”

“I guess you know but,” Sorey starts “she also found inspiration in a book, the Celestial Record.”

“Ah, yes, I read it too,” Aurik smiles “when my grandmother lived people thought it was nothing but old legends. I’m glad we all know better now.”

“Me too,” Sorey smiles, looking at the painting again.

“I also read,” Aurik continues, somehow insecure but masking it well “of all you did. My grandmother wrote about how you vanquished the Lord of Calamity and then went to sleep, so Maotelus could give us his blessing once more.”

“I didn’t have the chance to tell Alisha all that,” Sorey casts his gaze down, a little sad thinking of Alisha’s dedicatory.

“I don’t think she minded at all,” Aurik offers at seeing his reaction “she understood you had a duty to the world, just like her to our Kingdom. If anything I think your actions made her even more confident on what she had to do.”

Sorey doesn’t say anything to that. He knows that to be truth, knowing Alisha she probably refused to be sad or shocked at the news of his fate, and used that to fuel her own fire, matter not what she thought or felt at the moment.

He thinks of the dedicatory and feels a certain kind of melancholy, for the adventures they didn’t have, indeed. Fate had different plans for both of them but they weren’t bad plans, he muses. She helped her Kingdom to be what it is today and has inspired the man in front of him to be the best he can be for his people too.

It’s more than enough.

“You know,” Aurik says, timidly “when I was a boy and I read of all my grandmother did and all you did, knowing you were to wake up someday, I always dreamed of meeting you,” he laughs, embarrassed at his shameless confession “I never thought it would actually happened.”

“Oh, well, that’s…” Sorey sputters, embarrassed himself. He never got used to be praised after all “that’s very nice,” he finishes, awkwardly.

Aurik laughs at that and Sorey can’t help but follow him. The sound of their laughter fills the silent of the night with merriment and Sorey feels lighter for it.

“I’m sorry, it’s sort of ridiculous I know,” Aurik offers, still laughing a little.

“Not at all,” Sorey assures him shaking his head “we all have dreams when we’re children. I’m glad I could made yours come truth.”

Aurik looks surprised at his words and for a moment he just stares at Sorey, like he’s seeing him for the first time again.

“You really are something else, Shepherd,” he says slowly after a while “I’m very honored and grateful for being able to meet you.”

He says it with such unabashed sincerity that Sorey finds himself at loss of words too. At the end, he simply decides to say:

“Just call me Sorey, I’m not the Shepherd anymore.”

“As you wish, Sorey,” Aurik smiles.

After that they stay silent again until Aurik finishes his cup of tea and then offers to guide Sorey to his room. They go the second floor and Aurik shows him to the nicest room Sorey has ever stayed in, he can barely believe this is just a guest room.

“If we have news of your friend, I’ll come to wake you up,” Aurik tells him.

“Please do,” Sorey says.

Aurik bids him goodnight and then Sorey stays alone, feeling instantly the weight of the day over him.

The discussion with Velvet, the reunion with Edna, the search around the city, meeting Aurik and talking about Alisha, all of it has really drained him and he feels he needs to sleep.

He goes to the bed, notices they left bed garments for him but decides against using them and only takes off his cloak and shoes.

He feels the buzzing of many thoughts in the back of his mind but the moment he puts his head on the pillow, his tiredness overcomes them and sleep finds him quickly.

* * *

After taking her out of Adeline’s house, Velvet was taken to a carriage where she and the knights had a very silent, awkward ride. She tried asking them why they were arresting her, a knight told her this wasn’t an arrest and she asked then what it was; the knights exchanged a look and then stayed silent as a tomb. No one heed her questions after that.

When the carriage stopped and the knights came out, she listened to them discuss about where they were taking her and in the quiet of the slumbering city, she caught something about unclear instructions but since this was a personal request from the Chancellor and he had told them to be careful, it was best to lead her to the Palace’s dungeon.

The Chancellor, Velvet had thought, not getting anything of what was happening, why the Chancellor would want to meet her.

After that, she was quickly taken to said dungeon, thrown into a cell and left alone with only one knight watching over her.

Now, she’s sitting in her cell, considering all the possible ways she could get out of here, or if it’s even necessary for her to do so. She’s now more intrigued than ever as to why was she brought here but even if she wants to know that, she’s low-key worried about Adeline. The girl is probably strong, since being a blacksmith is a pretty hard lifting work, but if what she saw in the alley is anything to go by, she won’t fight against the guild if they go look for her.

She’s kinda responsible, she guesses, if they attempt payback about what happened today.

In any case, even if she decides to escape, it doesn’t look like it will be that easy. The knight is dutifully watching her every move and the cell, thought very old, is sturdy as ever. This would be a lot easier if she still had her deamon arm.

How things are it seems like her only option is to wait. She sits in the stone bed, legs crossed with her back leaning against the wall, as uncomfortable as one can be. They didn’t even bothered to give her a blanket or something, she thinks bitterly, feeling the cold creeping around her; she can hear water running nearby so that must be why it is so cold.

Time passes and eventually the echoed sound of quick footsteps and arguing voices comes to her. She gets up and walks towards the bars, trying to see the source of the hassle.

“I’m so sorry,” a man is saying “I didn’t tell the knights where to take her when—”

“But throwing her into a dungeon!” another man says, and she thinks she knows who he is.

Finally the two men come into her sight. One she doesn’t recognize but the other is, who if not, Sorey.

“Velvet!” he exclaims, getting in front of her cell and taking the bars with his hands. She steps back “Velvet I’m so sorry, I—!”

“So it was you who orchestrated all this,” she says, crossing her arms over her stomach “you wanted to give me a lesson for robbing that guy?”

“What?! No!” Sorey screams, horrified. “That’s not it!”

“Excuse me,” the other man steps closer to the cell, noticing Sorey’s distress “my name is Aurik Diphda, I’m the Chancellor of this city and a friend of Sorey.” He introduces himself with a pleasant smile, so out of place considering where they are “Sorey told me you two got separated in the city and asked for my help to find you. I had the royal knights look for you but I wasn’t clear about what to do once you were with them so they brought you here. I deeply apologize for this, I’m the one to blame.”

Velvet stares at the man. He seems to be saying the truth and, not only that, he really seems ashamed for all of this. She watches him carefully, assessing him and his too kind words. His smile doesn’t waver.

“All right,” she says calmly “thanks for clarifying that. Though maybe you should’ve told them to explain some of this to me, I—!

“AGH!”

Velvet and Aurik turn at the sound of the knight’s sudden screech and find the man pointing his spear at Sorey, though from the knight’s perspective he’s probably pointing it at thin air.

“Where are the keys?!” Sorey yells at the knight.

“The keys,” Aurik says to the knight then “open the cell.”

“Ye—yes, sir,” the knight sputters nervously putting his spear aside and looking suspiciously in Sorey’s direction, but following the order without major delay.

He opens the cell and Sorey shoves him to the side to get himself in. The knight screeches again and Aurik awkwardly apologizes for it and tells him to leave them alone.

Meanwhile, Sorey gets into the cell and takes Velvet’s hands.

“Let’s get you out of here,” he says, “I’m so sorry,” he apologizes again and practically drags Velvet out of the cell.

“Hey, what’s gotten into you?” Velvet asks “calm down,” she says more softly.

“I don’t know how to apologize for this,” Sorey is saying gravely, like he didn’t hear her.

Once out of the cell he lets go of her hands, skittish, and looks at her with such a distraught expression Velvet feels like she’s the one that should be asking for forgiveness.

“I’m really, terribly sorry about this, I—“

“Stop apologizing,” Velvet commands and Sorey shuts up “your friend here already told me what happened, it’s not that big of deal—“

“How can you say that?” Sorey murmurs “They, they brought you here,” he gestures to the walls around them “to a dungeon, a _prison_ ,” he says, like it pains him to do so “and you, you already spent so much time in one, underserving it, I don’t want you to be in that situation ever again and I’m so sorry…”

Sorey keeps apologizing but Velvet doesn’t hear much of it. She has to take a mental step back to consider what Sorey just told her. She’s too stunned to say anything for a moment but she eventually finds it in herself to smile softly, feeling warm at his display of empathy.

“That’s what’s worrying you?” she says and Sorey stops at the kind sound of her voice “that’s why you scared that knight trying to the take the keys? You don’t want me to be here?”

“Of course not!” Sorey says “I would never…”

“It’s okay,” Velvet says, smiling, trying to don’t laugh “really, it’s okay, it doesn’t bother me to be here, I’m fine.”

“Are you?” Sorey asks, to be completely sure.

“Yeah.” Velvet says with confidence “I’m fine.”

When Aurik went to wake him up and told him the knights had taken Velvet to the Palace’s dungeon Sorey almost had a heart attack. He put on his clothes in an instant and he sprinted all the way to the Palace, Aurik hot on his heels.

They may had not talk much about it, but the moment he heard Velvet was being kept in a cell he couldn’t help but think about what she said, spending three years of her life in prison plotting her revenge, feeding her spirit on the sole hope of killing the man that unjustifiably put her there. To think that she would be in such a place again, Sorey thought, it’d be the most awful experience and he felt terribly thinking it was his fault.

He had told Aurik to make sure the knights kept her guard up, after all, so they deciding to thrown her into the dungeon was, in a way, his doing.

He couldn’t bear to think the pain it would cause Velvet to be in a prison cell again.

But looking at her, she really looks like it isn’t that big of deal. He watches her and her soft smile and then lets out a sigh as all tension leaves his body.

“I’m glad,” he sighs, finally smiling too “I really am.”

They look at each other for a moment.

“Well, even if Miss Crowe doesn’t mind being here,” Aurik comments with a smile “we should still go somewhere more comfortable to talk.”

“Yeah, of course,” Sorey says, awkwardly “let’s go back to the manor.”

“Just one moment,” Velvet says and goes to the place where the knight was watching her to retrieve her weapons.

“You got a new sword,” Sorey notes.

“It’s a long story,” Velvet sighs

“What happened?” Sorey asks.

“We really should talk somewhere else,” Velvet answer as she straps the swords “it’s freezing here.”

* * *

When they get back to the manor Aurik says he’ll arrange a room for Velvet too, without asking if she wants or needs to stay the night here, and apparently he’s gonna do it himself because he leaves without calling any servants. Velvet doesn’t stop him.

“I didn’t know you had such connections in the city,” Velvet comments when Aurik leaves them alone.

They’re at the living room where portrait of Alisha is hanging, the fire in the chimney even dimmer than when Sorey was here a few hours before.

“Me neither,” Sorey explains “I just recently met him, he’s the grandchild of one of my friends, the princess I told you about, Alisha.”

Velvet hums at that, looking at the barely visible painting over the fireplace.

“Is that her?” she asks, just to say something.

“Yes, that’s her, though older from when I met her.”

They just stand there for a while, their silence brought to attention by the tic-tac of clock somewhere in the house.

After a while is Velvet who decides to break the quietness.

“I think I should give you this back,” she says, untying his sword from her hip “I won’t be needing it anymore.”

She extended the sword to him and Sorey looks at it with sad eyes, thinking it means she doesn’t want him around anymore.

“You won’t?” he asks to be sure but taking the sword all the same.

“I borrowed this one,” she says patting the longsword “and if everything goes according to plan soon I’ll have my own.”

“I see,” he nods.

“Also…” Velvet starts, somehow awkwardly “you were looking for me.”

“I was, yes I…I didn’t like how we parted ways,” Sorey admits sincerely, clinging at the sword with both hands in front of his stomach.

“Me neither,” Velvet agrees “I guess we should get to that.”

“I guess…” Sorey says and takes a deep breath. He dreads the conversation but he went through a lot of trouble to be able to find her and have said conversation so, “I stand by what I said. I think that what you did was unnecessary and condemnable, I don’t approve it and I don’t think I could tolerate you doing something like that again.”

Velvet stares at him, nodding.

“I too, stand by what I said, sometimes you just need to do what’s necessary and the world is not so kind to always let you make the right choice.” She says with conviction.

“I understand that,” Sorey concedes “I really do.”

When he was the Shepherd he had to take some pretty tough choices after all, he understands that sometimes the right answer is not the most morally sound. It may be selfish and even hypocritical of him to judge Velvet so hard for a simply robbery when before he pretty much ended up endorsing Rose’s assassinations, but now that the fate of world is not resting on his shoulders, now that the world is better than what it used to be…well, maybe he’s allowed to be a little selfish and hang to ideals he never had the opportunity to truly embrace as the Shepherd.

“However,” Velvet continues, dragging him out of his ponderings “I can admit I acted hastily, and that it wasn’t truly necessary. I can’t promise I won’t do something like that again and I can’t say I regret doing it, but at the very least…” she sighs “at the very least I don’t want to do it again.”

That’s a lot better of what Sorey was expecting, actually.

 “So, if you think you can’t keep traveling with a criminal in potential like me, I’ll understand.” Velvet says with easy resignation.

Sorey smiles and shakes his head.

“I want to keep traveling with you,” he says sincerely “unless you don’t one a goody two shoes like me as a companion.”

“Honestly?” Velvet says, smiling too “I’ve had worse.”

Sorey laughs, feeling a weight coming out of his shoulders at that, and by how relaxed Velvet looks he guesses it’s the same for her.

He would honestly hate to do this journey alone.

By then Aurik comes back and takes Velvet to her room, which is conveniently next to Sorey’s.

“Chancellor,” Velvet calls before saying their goodnights “I hate to abuse of your hospitality, but could I ask you of one more favor?”

“And what it may be?” Aurik asks.

“I would like if you send someone to keep an eye on the house I was staying in, to look after the girl that lives there.”

“Of course, that would be no problem at all,” he says with a smile and then, a little more serious “is she in some kind of danger?”

“Perhaps,” Velvet says “I’m supposed to be looking after her, I don’t want to leave her alone for long.”

Aurik nods.

“I’ll send someone to keep an eye on her, don’t worry about it, for now, let us all go to bed. Goodnight, Miss Crowe, Sorey.”

He leaves again and before they enter to their rooms Sorey inquires:

“You’re…looking after someone?”

“As I said, it’s a long story,” she says, patting her sword again “I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. Goodnight, Sorey.”

“Okay. Goodnight, Velvet.”

* * *

 

A maid gently wakes her up and Velvet stirs in the too soft matters and too smooth covers, it had feel strange just to slip into bed last night, not used to such luxury. She’s even less familiar with a maid coming to tend her every need.

The maid talks to her with a pleasant smile, unperturbed by Velvet’s wary gaze, telling her breakfast will be served in an hour and that a bath is ready if she wants to take it. Velvet takes her on the offer but bathes with a vague sense of alarm knowing the maid is at the other side of the door, awaiting for her.

When she steps out of the bathroom the maid also offers to help her dress and to style her hair. Velvet immediately says no to the dressing part, it’s not like she’s getting herself into a complicated outfit anyway, but considers a little longer the part with her hair.

She knows it’ll be faster if she accepts but the only people that has help her with her hair in years has been Phi (and Eizen, that one time) and decides she’s not comfortable with a stranger messing with her hair, and declines in the end. The maid shows no opinion on her rejection and simply awaits for her to be ready.

Downstairs, the maid accompanies her to a medium sized dining hall that has a big picture window in one of his walls, showing a beautiful garden basked in the gentle light of the morning sun.

At the head of the table Aurik is already sitting, reading some official looking documents and drinking a cup of coffee. The maid shows Velvet her sit, a chair away from Aurik, and asks her if she’d like coffee or tea. Velvet choses coffee, the smell of Aurik’s cup truly alluring.

“Good morning, Miss Crowe,” Aurik greets, putting the papers aside and smiling at her “I hope you rested well.”

“Good morning, Chancellor,” Velvet answers “it was a pleasant night, thank you.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

After that Aurik turns his attention back to the documents and the maid comes back with Velvet’s coffee. They stay in silence for a moment, with Velvet sipping her coffee somehow clumsily; she really is a lowlife, she thinks, feeling uneasy in such a pretty house and having such good coffee.

“If you don’t mind me asking, Miss Crowe,” Aurik says casually after a moment, once again putting his documents aside “what is your relationship with Shepherd Sorey?”

Velvet carefully puts down her cup and looks at him. Last night he seemed like a pretty open, almost naïve guy, in the way he so readily seemed to trust her, but now she can see an inquisitive glint in his eyes that she guesses is a must have for every politician.

“We’re friends,” she tells him and doesn’t really know what to add to that.

“He said so himself,” Aurik concedes “but, and I hope I’m not being indiscreet, he seemed to believe you would put up…resistance when my men went to look for you last night. That’s partially the reason they took you to the dungeon, Sorey told me to be cautious and I passed that onto them.”

“He believed that?” Velvet says a little amused because, well, Sorey hadn’t assumed wrong “I can see why he would say that to you.”

Her answer seems to only confuse him more and Velvet wonders if what she saw of him last night was simply a front. Maybe the maid with her in the morning wasn’t just there to help her, but to watch her.

She finds no offense in that, the man would be a fool allowing someone just like that in his house.

“That’s why I’m wondering,” Aurik continues then “what’s your relationship with him.”

“We really are just friends,” Velvet assures him “but I know you heard our conversation in the dungeon and saw how worried Sorey was about me being there, I think you can make a few assumptions, Chancellor.”

“I certainly can,” he says, a little taken back by Velvet’s statement “I just didn’t want to jump conclusions.”

Even if he already has, Velvet ponders. He seems to think there’s something fishy going on between both of them, maybe that Velvet is using Sorey or something, she can’t really tell, but she can’t tell him anything that will ease his worries without explaining the long story that ultimately put her here alongside Sorey, so she stays silent and sips her coffee.

Aurik watches her with pensive eyes but before he can say anything else Sorey finally appears.

“I’m sorry,” he says “I kinda got lost looking for the dining hall.”

“Good morning, Sorey,” Aurik says with a smile, like he wasn’t just interrogating Velvet “please sit down,” he points to the chair between him and Velvet “I left you a note with the instructions to get here, wasn’t it clear enough?”

“No, no, the note was fine,” Sorey says as he sits down “it’s just, I guess I didn’t realize how big this house is.” He says with a smile.

Velvet hears this and wonders if the instructions were perhaps wrong on purpose so Aurik could talk to her in private.

“Morning, Velvet,” Sorey says to her then.

“Morning, Sorey,” Velvet answers “being invisible is hard huh?”

“I don’t mind much,” he says in good spirits “but it does have its disadvantages.”

Aurik calls his butler and tells him something. The butler disappears and comes back with a pair of maids behind him, who bring trays with the so expected breakfast.

“My Lord,” the butler calls while the maids lay out the food “I believe Lady Edna has already arrive.”

“Yes, thank you, I’ll go get her,” he says getting up “if you’ll excuse me.”

“Who’s that?” Velvet asks to Sorey and the maids have a hard time deciding if she’s talking go them or to the seraph they know it’s there but can’t see.

“She’s another one of my friends,” Sorey explains, watching with a frown the food in front of him “she’s the Lord of the land here at Ladylake and is the one who introduced me to Aurik.”

“Lord of the land?” Velvet inquires.

“A seraphim that gives their blessing to a certain area,” Sorey clarifies. “I’m guessing Aurik went to fetch her because only he can see her.”

She nods in understanding.

The maids finish serving breakfast and by then Aurik comes back with Edna behind him.

“Please take a sit, Lady Edna,” Aurik says, moving the other chair next to him for her.

“Thank you,” she answers, gracefully sitting down and having her umbrella rest on the back of the chair next to her.

The moment she sees her enter the room Velvet’s eyes are dragged to her and she stares at Edna without trying to mask her scrutiny. She looks a lot like—

“Ah, Edna,” Sorey calls, remembering Edna’s almost ultimatum yesterday “look, this here is Velvet. Velvet, she’s my friend Edna.”

He thinks it would be best to just have them meet and get over with this and, besides, he knows Edna won’t do anything weird with Aurik there.

Edna turns slowly in Velvet’s direction and spares her a measured gaze.

“It’s a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, Miss Crowe,” Edna says in a polite tone “Sorey has been talking about you non-stop, I could barely take it anymore.”

“Edna!” Sorey complains, embarrassed because that’s not truth! He has been talking about other things too.

“Has he?” Velvet smiles “It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Lady Edna.”

After that they have breakfast. They have an amiable, trivial conversation thanks to Aurik making small talk, he asks Velvet about how she’s liking the city, how their trip here was and the like. Edna is good at keeping the conversation alive too, but none of them make intrusive or difficult questions and Velvet can’t do nothing but admire their social expertise.

Meanwhile, Sorey is having problems pretending he’s actually eating when in truth he has just been playing with his food. Perhaps he should’ve told Aurik before that he didn’t want anything, he doesn’t feel comfortable around food yet.

At some point, the butler gets near Aurik and whispers something. Aurik gets a serious face for a moment and then gets up.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to excuse me, it appears my presence it’s needed at the Palace. Feel free to stay here if you’d like.” He finishes, looking at Velvet.

“Thank you,” she answers and then he’s gone.

They stay in silence for a moment, the butler went with Aurik and the maids are nowhere to be seen, but Velvet has the impression they aren’t exactly alone.

“Why aren’t you eating?” Edna asks suddenly, looking at Sorey with suspicious eyes.

“I don’t know,” he answers sincerely “I just haven’t feel like eating since I woke up you know?”

“Even if you don’t feel like it, if you do something physically demanding you should try to eat something.” She lectures.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Sorey assures but unceremoniously puts his spoon down all he same.

Edna elegantly takes a sip of her coffee and looks at Sorey like she’d like to add something to that, but notices Velvet is once again looking at her very intently.

“Is there something in your mind?” Edna asks to her.

Velvet feels like she has seen someone look at her with those same hard eyes that before. She considers for some long moments what she’s going to say next, she knows her appearance, the umbrella and her name are too much to simply be a coincidence. She needs to know, anyway, so she decides to speak her mine.

“Are you Eizen’s sister?” Velvet asks.

Edna’s expression changes ever so slightly, showing her surprise. She puts down her cup and closes her eyes.

“Yes, I’m his sister,” she answers “I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise you could tell, Lord of Calamity.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha so, what do you think? i debated for literal days if i should end this chapter here, well yeah xD
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this! Thanks for reading every comment will be appreciate!


	8. Chapter 8

 

“Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else!” Sorey says, suddenly getting up, pushing the table a little and making lot of tinkering little noises with the tableware.

“It’s not like anyone will hear us,” Edna observes.

“They won’t hear _us_ but they will hear Velvet,” he says “and I don’t think any of this should be public knowledge.”

“We’re in a house, Sorey,” Edna explains like she’s saying something really obvious “I wouldn’t call anyone hearing us here public knowledge.”

“Maybe so, but I still think—!”

“I agree,” Velvet interrupts then “we shouldn’t talk about this here, I don’t think your friend the Chancellor likes me that much.”

“Why not?” Sorey frowns.

“Because she’s sketchy,” Edna deadpans “pay attention, Sorey.”

He scoffs, but then both Edna and Velvet start getting up and he decides that’s good enough.

“Where should we go?” Velvet asks.

“The Aqueduct?” Sorey suggest as they make their way to the door.

“I think the Sanctuary would be better,” Edna offers “there isn’t much people about at this hour and no one will look funny at her if she’s talking alone.”

Sorey nods.

“Should we just leave this here?” Velvet says, eyeing the table, itching to clean it up.

“Someone will take care of it,” Edna dismisses.

Velvet doesn’t say more but still feels kind of terrible for not cleaning after herself.

Edna guides them through the hallways of the manor and they don’t encounter anyone on their way out until they come to the front door and the butler opens it for them.

“Are you leaving now, Miss Crowe?” the man says, expression unreadable.

“Yes, we’re stepping out for a while, please thank the Chancellor for his hospitality.”

“As you wish, Miss, have a nice day.”

They get out of the manor and start walking towards the Sanctuary.

“Maybe we should’ve leave a message for Aurik,” Sorey comments “tell him where we are going.”

“It’s not like we won’t come back,” Edna tells him “and I’m sure he must be busy at the Palace, let’s let him focus on his work.”

They walk in silence after that. Velvet has stopped looking at Edna like she’s trying to crack a puzzle and Edna seems relaxed enough, but Sorey is feeling somehow uneasy. He had made his own conjectures already, about the Eizen Velvet mentioned before being Edna’s brother, but now that he has the confirmation he’s dreading the conversation they will have to have.

Eizen is dead, and by their hand no less.

He thinks Edna has probably move on, Velvet’s mention of her brother moments ago didn’t seem to faze her, but he doesn’t know how Velvet is going to react to hearing the terrible news, if Maotelus was as cryptic with her as with him on the subject of their old companions she probably doesn’t know.

They make it to the Sanctuary in a matter of minutes and, just how Edna said, the place is mostly empty. There’s only an old woman at the middle of the spacious hall, deep in prayer, and a priest.

Edna guides them to the back of the precinct and when they get close to the altar she eyes curiously the multiple offerings left there.

“What do you even do with these things?” Velvet asks suddenly, whispering to don’t call attention to herself.

“Nothing,” Edna answers “but I don’t need to, it’s not what’s offered what is important, but they sincerity of the giver’s intent. I have the priest do what they see fit with them.”

“Can the priest see you?” Sorey asks.

“No, I had Aurik told him that.”

Edna tells them it will be best to speak at the backyard. When she opens the door the priest turns at the sound and looks inquiringly at Velvet, but doesn’t stop her for going forward, especially when he notices the door is moving seemingly on its own.

Outside they’re welcome by a big patch of grass and another building at the other side it. There’s no one here and no sounds from the streets reach them. There, Edna invites them to sit down.

Velvet sits closer to the Sanctuary, choosing the firm stone floor rather than the grass, leaning her back against the wall, one leg outstretch and the other bend, with her hand resting over it. Sorey sits cross-legged on the grass and Edna sits over her heels, folding her legs under her and keeping her knees firmly closed, she also opens her umbrella and rests it on her shoulder, protecting herself from the morning sun.

Velvet watches her, with less intensity than moments before, but still curiously. She looks a lot like Eizen, and not only because their hair, skin and eyes are pretty much the same shade, but because she carries herself with the same confidence Eizen did and her gaze is as heavy as his. Velvet can easily imagine her becoming as intimidating as her brother was, if she wishes so.

“Sorey told me of the circumstances of your awakening, Lord of Calamity,” Edna starts after they get comfortable “though I guess it’s a little inaccurate to call you that anymore.”

“You can call me whatever you like,” Velvet says “I may not be a deamon anymore, but that doesn’t change what I did.”

“Deamon,” Edna repeats with a smile “that word really takes me back, does it the same to you? Are you planning of the terrorizing any towns now? Or killing the current Shepherd?”

“Edna!” Sorey exclaims, this is SO not where he wants this conversation to go.

“Not without a reason,” Velvet answers without missing a beat, ignoring Sorey’s outburst “but I don’t think that will happen, I’m trying to get out of all the killing, burning towns business.”

“That’s good to hear,” Edna smiles politely. She stays silent for a moment and her smile slips slowly away from her face as she thinks over what she’s gonna say next “I think my brother would be happy to hear that too.”

“As long as I decide it for myself, I guess he would be.”

Edna looks at her for a long while, with the same old, inquiring eyes she measured Sorey up last night, like she’s seeing something they can’t, like she’s appreciating a certain quality in them only she can see.

The air is still around them, and in the solemn silence of the Sanctuary Velvet can really appreciate how old she is.

“Shortly after you killed the Shepherd,” Edna says then, slowly “my brother actually came to see me.”

“He did?” Velvet is more surprised with the choice of subject than with the statement itself. She had thought Edna would have wanted to know about her intentions, or her friendship with Sorey, her reasons to travel with him, not this.

In any case she can’t say she dislikes Edna’s approach, she wants to know what happened to Eizen and where he is, now.

“He came and talked to me about all that had happened, your travels with him and about other, more personal matters,” Edna continues and Velvet nods, guessing what those matters could be “I guess I should thank you for that.”

Velvet frowns.

“How so?”

“It appears you told him once, something about how the person he cared about was still a live, so he should take the chance to say what he needed to.”

Velvet remembers that, while they were looking for the nor dolls so Eizen could send them to his sister. She had an outburst when she heard Eizen making excuses as to why he didn’t just simply tell his sister why he didn’t return or what he was doing out in the world, it had made her angry, so angry that Eizen still had his sister there and he didn’t do the minimum effort to be with her, to clarify things between them. She couldn’t help but recriminate him for that.

“It didn’t seem like he took it to heart at the moment.” Velvet decides to say, remembering Eizen’s silence at her words.

“He did,” Edna assures, looking at the floor “I think all you did together had an impact on him.”

Velvet is glad to hear that. She always tried to play it tough, back then, like she didn’t care about what happened to any of her companions, like she was indeed merely using them and staying at their side because it was beneficial for her, and maybe it was like that, at first. Now she feels strong enough to admit how much she came to care about all of them. How much she still cares about all of them.

That’s why, when she notices Edna looks strangely dejected, Velvet feels a pressure building up in her gut, a bad feeling, a warning.

“He went out to the world afterwards, again” Edna continuous “but we actually exchanged letters then and he came back a few more times. He never stayed long, however, until…” She stops herself and looks at the grass, searching for the right thing to say.

Sorey had thought Edna was over it but it’s clear the final fate of her brother still pains her greatly. Sorey guesses it will never really stop hurting. He prepares to tell Velvet what happened to Eizen, taking a deep breath and opening his mouth, but he struggles too, to say what he needs to.

Velvet watches them and the feeling in her gut gets worse, but not wanting to be left in the dark for long she speaks:

“He’s dead, isn´t he?” Velvet finds herself saying, very quietly.

Edna lifts her gaze, eyes full of worn out sadness and tempered resignation. She nods, small and elegant as all she does, and Velvet can tell this is something that probably happened a lot time ago.

“He is,” she answers, and there are not tears in her eyes, not wavering in her words, it’s just the simple yet melancholic confirmation of a fact “how could you tell?”

“A hunch,” Velvet says, looking at the side “he always did have terrible luck.”

As did all of us, she thinks. She guesses it could’ve been way too good for Eizen to still be around and with the life he leaded, this was probably the only possible outcome. He wanted it that way, after all.

“What happened?” Velvet inquires after a moment.

Edna swallows.

“He became a dragon,” she responds solemnly “I don’t know the specifics, one day he just came back to the mountain where I lived, already fully transformed. I knew it was him but…he was still a dragon.”

Velvet sighs deeply, closing her eyes. Of course, what other way could’ve Eizen gone, he knew it was going to happen, the subject came out more than once and he talked about his eventual fatal destiny without fear. Still, she hears this and a hole opens in her heart.

“And then?” Velvet pushes, never one to shy away from the truth.

It takes some long seconds for her to get an answer, and it’s Sorey the one who takes the word.

“We killed him,” he says, to spare Edna the pain “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Velvet says immediately, looking alternately at both of them “it’s what he wanted.”

Edna lets out a breath.

“It’s what I’ve heard,” Edna says “I think that, at the end, it was really the right thing to do but…I don’t think I ever knew Eizen as well as you did.” That belief obviously hurts her more than his death.

Velvet shakes her head.

“He was your brother,” Velvet says with confidence “of course you knew him. And I bet you knew him in a way I never could.”

Edna stares at Velvet, her eyes getting slowly warmer.

“You’re surprisingly empathic for a deamon Lord,” she offers after a moment.

Velvet smiles, not really knowing what to say to that.

She suddenly wants to be alone.

* * *

They stay for some time there, in silence, each of them deep in their thoughts. At some point Sorey decides to fully lay down and he sprawls himself over the smooth grass, watching the sky. Edna remains sat all the while, her posture changing ever so slightly from time to time. Velvet stays the same too, her eyes transfixed in some indeterminate point on her lap.

She wants to say something but she’s not sure what, it’s a small yet pressing feeling in her chest that extends to her throat and mouth, like there’s something that needs to get out, but she can’t tell what it may be.

She can’t tell either if she had wanted to Eizen to still be around. What could she say to him if he were, anyway? It’s not like there was something untold between them, not like there was anything to repay or to retrieve. Nothing at all.

Perhaps that’s the reason of her unease. What they had simply was and there’s nothing left between them. There could’ve been something to build, however, if he were still alive and Velvet thinks, she would’ve like that. She really would.

“Hey, Velvet,” Sorey calls, interrupting their thoughtful silence as he sits up. “So, what’s with the new sword?”

His voice pulls her out of her ponderings and she stares at the longsword at her hip.

“I’m borrowing it,” she answers “from a girl named Adeline. She’s the daughter of Cecily, the woman that took us in.”

“Her daughter?” Sorey inquires.

Velvet nods and finds convenient comfort on the excuse to don’t keep thinking about Eizen. She tells him of her conversation with Cecily about her daughter here at Ladylake, and how worried she was.

“I happened to run into her yesterday and it turned up the girl is neck deep in some shady business with a trader guild.”

“Oh, so you were staying with her to protect her from the guild?” Sorey guesses, putting the little information he has together.

“For the time being, but I’m actually looking for a way to get her out of the whole mess.”

She tells him the Adeline’s story and what she plans to do to get her the money. Sorey hadn’t thought Velvet could be this considerate.

“Do you really think you’ll be able to hunt those beasts?” Sorey says, a little skeptical “And even if you do, it sounds like the guild could be able to pull something like this again.”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that too,” Velvet nods “I may have a plan, but I’d like to have the security of giving Adeline the money first, in case anything happens.”

“With kind of plan?”

Velvet stares at him.

“You may not like it.”

“We’re not doing anything rash.” Sorey points firmly.

 Velvet scoffs a little and he tries to don’t get too caught up in that, he doesn’t even know what she plans and she hasn’t done anything yet, after all.

“Relax. One step at a time,” Velvet dismisses, doing nothing to dismiss his worries “first I need to figure out a way to get the hunting permit, I could try to hunt without it but if someone catches me it’ll just cause more trouble.”

“Aurik may be able to help with that,” Edna suddenly says “I’m sure he could get you whatever papers you need.”

“I don’t know,” Sorey says “I wouldn’t like to abuse his kindness and if he doesn’t trust Velvet at all, it’ll just make him more wary of her.”

“Let _me_ ease his worries,” Edna says with confidence “he may not trust her, but he trusts me, he will get her the documents.”

“I’m fine with that,” Velvet perks up, ready to use Sorey’s and Edna’s influences to her advantage “maybe he can get me some kind of identification and a traveling permit too, so we won’t have to sneak into others towns.”

“I guess it is the most viable solution,” Sorey concedes “but let me ask him for it, if he’s doing a favor to my friend I think—“

“No way,” Edna interrupts him “how are you going to explain to him that she doesn’t even have an identification? How you two got into the city without a permit?”

“Well…I guess I would have to lie to him.”

“Exactly. No offense Sorey but you really suck at lying.”

“None taken,” he says, in a tone that suggest he may have taken some “it’s not like being good at lying is a good thing!” he defends himself.

“Being completely incompetent at it is taking your values a little too far, though,” Edna argues.

“That’s truth,” Velvet agrees.

“You two are just terrible people,” Sorey jabs.

“You got me there,” Velvet says, a half smirk adorning her face. Edna seems amused by it too and Sorey can’t help but laugh a little.

They don’t spend much time at the Sanctuary after that. Velvet wants to go check on Adeline but Edna has to stay at least for a while since, unlike them, she says, she has actual things to do. They decide to meet at Aurik’s house sometime after noon and then Sorey and Velvet are off.

Both of them walk in easy silence for a while, transiting the streets that are already bustling with activity.

Velvet seems fine after the news they just gave her and Sorey thinks she seems perhaps a little too fine. He may not know how the relationship of Velvet and Eizen really was, how close they were, but he had expected her to be a little more…sad, with the whole thing. In his case, he already knows that from his companions the only ones that can be alive are the seraphim, but he doesn’t think he would take well to hear that any of them were dead. The mere idea sends a shiver down his spine, even with all the thoughts that have plagued him since he woke up. He steals a sideways glance at Velvet.

She’s walking in the same confident, quick pace he has got to know in their brief time together, eyes in front of her, expression somehow stern. Nothing in her face betrays any particular emotion and she looks as well as she did earlier today, before hearing about Eizen. It puts him a little off, how she was the one to suggest that Eizen was dead and how quickly she was to comfort _them_ about the circumstances of his death.

He had thought maybe she was going to be mad at hearing what happened but she was so…calm about it, so ready to accept it. He doesn’t understand but maybe it is because he didn’t know Eizen, or because he still feels guilty about not being able to find a way to bring him back, as he said he was going to when he first met Edna.

Guilt. Of all the old feelings from his past life that he’s not sure still linger, it had to be guilt the one to carry over.

Or maybe it’s not guilt at all, he muses, maybe it’s just that he still wishes some things would’ve been different.

He wonders if Velvet wishes so too, just looking at her it’s impossible to know.

They eventually arrive to a less busy street, though still filled with shops of many kinds. It’s not hard to pin point where they are going, since there’s a guard standing right beside the door.

“Your friend the Chancellor doesn’t half assed anything, huh?” Velvet comments as they get closer to the shop.

“It would appear so,” Sorey says, lamenting Aurik’s lack of discretion. Even he can tell that putting a guard right outside someone’s door is not that good of idea.

The door has a ‘Closed’ sigh hanging from it and the curtains are drawn too.

“Hey, you,” Velvet calls to the guard “do you know if Adeline’s home?”

The guard stares at her long and hard, like trying to intimidate her but Velvet barely blinks. The guard grunts, but doesn’t answer and Velvet scoffs.

She goes to knock the door and the guard keeps a vigilant eye over her, but does nothing to stop her.

“Maybe she’s out?” Sorey suggest after a few moments of utter silence.

“Maybe,” Velvet murmurs “or maybe she doesn’t want to come out because there’s a guard at her doorstep.” She takes a few steps behind to get a better view of the house and the upper floor window “Hey, Adeline!” Velvet calls “Are you home?!”

By this point she has called the attention of some passersby and other shopkeepers, but all of them keep their distance.

Eventually the window opens and Adeline sticks her head out.

“Velvet?!” She says with surprise “Wait, I’m coming!” then she scampers inside the house.

After a short wait Adeline opens the door. She urges Velvet to go inside the house, intently not looking at the guard. Sorey has to enter first to don’t risk Adeline shutting him out after Velvet goes in.

Once inside Adeline closes the door with sigh, leaning on it.

“Looks like you’re being kept in good company,” Velvet comments. Adeline shakes her head.

“I assume this has something to do with what happened last night,” Adeline answers, sounding a little recriminatory.

“Was he a problem?” Velvet questions before answering anything. She is gonna have to say something to Aurik if it turns out the guard did something to Adeline and considering how things went with her last night, she wouldn’t be surprise that the guard would use ‘unclear instructions’ as an excuse.

Adeline shakes her head again.

“Not exactly,” she starts explaining “I’m not sure when he got here, but he has been standing there since I woke up and I saw that a couple of the Silverflags men came and turned tail when they saw him, but he hasn’t let me leave either.”

Velvet nods. That’s exactly what she wanted sending someone to keep an eye on her, except for the last part.

“Did he say why?”

“No. Just that his job was to keep me safe and it would be easier if I stayed inside.” She says “I also tried asking him if he knew anything about you.”

“And did he have anything to say about that?”

“Of course not. It was the royal knights who took you, it was obvious he wasn’t going to know anything, but it was still worth the try.”

After that Adeline stays in silence for a moment, thinking over what she’s gonna say next. Velvet waits patiently for her, while Sorey goes looking around the feeble shop, though listening attentively to what the two women say.

“You said you were a traveler,” Adeline starts then, walking towards the counter, far away from the door and talking in hushed tones “and you said you’re helping me because of my mother and I can believe that, I mean,” she makes a pause and bits her lower lip, frowning a little “I mean, I can pretend I believe that, but there’s obviously something bigger going on here and I’d like to know,” she pauses again, looking stern “if I may end up in something worse than a millionaire debt.”

Now there’s a certain fire in the girl that wasn’t quite there before, it must be because everything happened so fast yesterday but now she has had time to calm down and think this over. Velvet likes that, Adeline is ready to accept Velvet’s help if it suits her needs but she’s also ready to throw her out of her house if the risks exceed the benefits.

“You have nothing to worry about,” Velvet assures her firmly “what happened last night was a misunderstanding…of sorts, “she says slowly and Sorey grimaces somewhere in the shop “and look, I even got you a personal guard.” She waves at the door “Though I admit that could’ve been handled better.”

“Is that your doing too?” Adeline asks, narrowing her eyes.

“A personal favor from the Chancellor,” Velvet says with a smirk.

“The Chancellor?!” Adeline gasps “Just who are you, Velvet?”

“A humble traveler, I told you.”

“You seem to be having fun with this,” Sorey comments near the counter, examining a pair of gauntlets over it.

Maybe, Velvet concedes, she did develop a certain pleasure for messing with people: Magilou’s fault, surely.

“The Chancellor is a friend of a friend,” Velvet explains then “whatever you imagine is going on, it’s not. You have nothing to worry about.”

Adeline thinks this over and finally sighs, defeated.

“Well, at least things seem to be going on my favor so…I’ll keep pretending I believe that, too.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Velvet says and Adeline makes a face “I came to see how you were doing, it seems the guild won’t bother you for a while.”

“As long as the guard is there, I can imagine they’d like to stay out of the guard business but he can’t stay there forever and neither can I,” Adeline points out.

“I’ll see what I can do about that,” Velvet nods “for now, it seems I’ll be able to get a hunting permit, but we may have to wait a day or two.”

“Are you sure about that?” Adeline asks, looking a little concern “I know I told you about it but it’s not an easy task to hunt a rhybgaro and it’s really dangerous, there’s a reason their horns are so rare.”

“I’m sure about that. I can’t think of any other way to get the money you need and I won’t leave you at the mercy of that guild.”

Adeline looks like she’d like to argue some more but at the end she simply nods.

“I guess it’s your neck, not mine,” She says with resignation.

“But let’s hope I don’t die, if not, who will get you the money.”

“I’ll pray for your safety then.”

“I’m sure you will,” Velvet says in good spirits and then, a little more serious “can I still stay at your place?”

Sorey turns at this.

“Sure,” Adeline answers, leaving behind any aggravating tone “you’re welcome to stay for as long as needed.”

 “Thanks. I’ll go see what I can do about the guard, I’ll be back later.”

“Okay just…try to hurry up about the guard? I really need to do the groceries.”

“No problem…and, one more question: Where can I find the Silverflags?”

Adeline looks at her in confusion and after a moment of hesitation she tells her where to find their headquarters. Velvet hopes Sorey is paying attention because Adeline talks of streets’ names and landmarks she can’t possibly know.

Velvet thanks her once more and then they leave the house.

“Why won’t you stay with Aurik?” it’s the first thing Sorey asks when they’re outside.

“I’m not fond of luxury,” Velvet answers easy enough “and I think both he and me will be more relaxed if I’m not there.”

Sorey purses his lips.

“Don’t say that, I mean, anyone would be wary of a stranger, don’t take it personal.”

“I’m not, I just…I think it’ll be best, so it won’t look like I’m taking advantage of him…even if I am with the permits and all that.”

“You’re not taking advantage,” Sorey says, crossing his arms “Aurik is just helping out a friend.”

“He wants to help you, not me,” Velvet continues, thinking about Aurik’s suspicion earlier this morning. “It’s not a big deal Sorey and I really prefer simpler accommodations.”

“If you say so,” Sorey drops the subject, even if he isn’t too convinced about Vevet’s motives.

He doesn’t want her to feel like an outsider among his friends, or like she doesn’t deserve their help, but he’s not sure on how to convey that to her. For now, he’s gonna let her do what is more comfortable for her, if she doesn’t want to stay with Aurik then she doesn’t have to but he…

“I’ll stay with you then,” Sorey perks up with a smile.

“What?” Velvet says, a little louder than appropriate and a few persons turn at the sound of her voice.

“If you don’t want to stay with Aurik that’s fine, I’ll stay with you at Adeline’s place.” Sorey explains “it’ll be fun.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Velvet says, shaking her head “and Adeline’s house is not big, I was staying in her couch, there’ll be no place for you.”

“It’s okay, I can sleep on the floor, doesn’t matter to me.” Sorey argues.

“She can’t see you,” Velvet continues, a little firmer “and I wouldn’t want to add ‘hey, I can see malakhim’ in top of everything else I’ve done and said.”

“I guess you’re right,” Sorey agrees slowly, it’d be harder for Adeline to trust in Velvet if they add her high resonance to it “Okay,” he finally sighs “you stay with her and I stay with Aurik.”

She nods and then they keep walking, with Velvet leading the way heading in the general direction of the Silverflags’ headquarters. At some point, when they leave the busier streets and Velvet has problems deciding where to go according to Adeline’s instructions, Sorey steps out and points the way.

“Why are we going there?” He asks, keeping his voice casual.

“I just wanna take a look to the place,” Velvet answers, her eyes in front of her, giving away nothing.

“Why?” Sorey insists. When Velvet doesn’t respond he bits his lips and asks “you are not planning anything rash are you?” he sounds more worried than accusatory and he guesses that’s good.

“No,” Velvet says, still not looking at him “we’re just gonna go and take a look to the place. See how many windows are there, how the building is positioned, if there’s people keeping watch, if—“

“Why would there be anyone keeping watch?” Sorey interrupts.

“Adeline said they’ve done the same thing they’re doing to her to other people, I wouldn’t be surprise if they got a number of enemies.”

“Okay, but…” he sighs, because he knows where Velvet is getting with all this “why do we need to know that?”

“Calm down,” Velvet says, almost amused at the resignation in his voice “right now were just gathering info, nothing more.”

Sorey doesn’t ask any more questions, Velvet is clearly not gonna tell him what she’s planning right now.

After a while they finally make it to their destination. The building is positioned in the middle of two streets that fuse together to make a large, single one; the building faces this street, with a large sign that simply reads ‘Silverflags: trader guild”. The place is pretty big and it has a lot of windows on both sides, but the ones in the third and last floor are covered with wood.

The activity around it it’s the same as in any other street and there doesn’t seem to be anything suspicious going on.

“What do you think, Sorey?” Velvet asks, as they casually stop under the awning of a shop.

“Think of what?” He says.

“This place,” she says, pointing at the building with her head “what impression it gives you?”

“Uh…” he looks at it and thinks. A lot of things stand out to him, most of it about how old the building looks, the techniques probably used in its construction and lot of historical facts but that’s surely not what Velvet is asking him “the windows in the third floor are suspicious?” he offers.

Velvet shrugs.

“Maybe, but more importantly…don’t you think this is a bad place to put up a trader guild?”

“How so?”

“Look, there’s not place for carriages to stop, and they don’t seem to have carriages of their own,” she says pointing at the front of the building, where there’s little sidewalk “it doesn’t look like there’s a back door either, I mean, there’s not ‘back’ at all.”

Sorey considers this.

“Yeah…maybe they trade a very specific product and they don’t need the carriages...or maybe their actual job is to scam people.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Velvet nods “and I mean, I would expect they would have a guard or two with them, a merchant’s job is a dangerous one.”

“Maybe they don’t want to intimidate the general public,” Sorey offers.

“Perhaps,” Velvet says, intently looking at the building.

She would’ve also expect the building to be closer to the center, near to the commercial district, they saw other guild’s headquarters in their way here and all of them were relatively close there. She purses her lips, thinking.

“I was thinking,” Velvet starts “how do you think they could replicate Adeline’s signature?”

Sorey leans on the wall, watching people come and go while he thinks.

“Some kind of arte, maybe,” he guesses first “though they would need a seraph for that and I don’t think many of them are in the fraud business,” it’s not like seraphim can’t do bad things, he knows, but it would strike him as really weird for one to decide to do that of all things “or someone simply copied it.”

“But copying a signature isn’t easy,” Velvet continues “and even if they simply traced it, someone at the notary’s office should’ve notice, they’re trained to know those things aren’t they?”

“That’s truth, the copy should’ve been exact…but not too exact, otherwise they would’ve notice the tracing and any on purpose error,” Sorey suggests in a thoughtful voice “so, there’s either a seraph helping them or they have someone way too good at this copying business.”

“I would like to check it out myself,” Velvet says with a sigh “but I kinda kicked their butts already, they must have alerted the rest of the guild of me, I can’t just go in so, Sorey, I hate to ask this of you but, would you mind?” She looks at him like she really does hate asking this favor.

“No problem,” he says with a nod. He actually likes the idea of a quiet, non-violent infiltration and he will just go in to have a look “I’ll be back in a moment.”

“Thank you, I’ll wait for you here,” she says and leans on the wall.

Sorey crosses the street and goes to the building. He stands for a moment outside of it, looking it over and feeling a familiar, unwelcome pressure the closer he gets to it. He frowns, recognizing the feeling and considers not going in. However, he knows Adeline and all the other people being scammed need their help and he doesn’t want Velvet to get in trouble trying to get information, he needs to get inside and see if he can learn something valuable.

He can bare the malevolence here, he convinces himself and breaths deeply before going forward.

The door is open so he has no problems getting in. Inside the place looks pretty normal, though a little empty; the lobby is pretty big and there’s only a desk at the back, near the stairs, and a couple of couches near the walls. There are only a few persons too, a man and a woman are talking at the desk, and other guild members are chatting in the couches. Nothing weird seems to be going on and no one is aware of his presence and the malevolence is just there, not getting stronger or changing, so he deems it safe for him to keep exploring.

He scans the place, noticing a pair of doors behind and to the side of the desk, but it would be too weird for them to open on their own so he decides to go for the stairs instead.

There are doors at one side of the stairs, most of them close but the ones that are open appear to be storage’s rooms or common lounges, he even eavesdrop some conversations but none of them are relevant to what he’s looking for so he keeps going.

At the first floor there’s more storage rooms, a few offices and lots of closed doors. He ignores them and goes for the second floor.

It looks like some of the guild members live here, since here most of the rooms are bedrooms and there’s a kitchen too. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, however, the pressure is thicker here, enough to make him sweat a little, but still is not something he can’t handle and it’s still considerable less than any other he has felt before.

He breathes, slow and conscientious, heading forward among the bedrooms. A hushed conversation behind a bad closed door calls his attention:

“…I don’t know man,” a young man is saying “I’m liking this business with the fake loans less and less every time.”

“I mean, I get you,” a and even younger woman answers “that old lady we went to threatened today…yeah, it left a bad taste in my mouth but what are we supposed to do? You don’t wanna go back to the streets again right?”

“Of course no, it’s just…this is getting dangerous, you heard what happened to Johan and his men the other day? They had to drag Peter here after that crazy woman got in their way collecting a debt! I don’t know how to fight!” he screeches “I don’t want to get killed by a bodyguard or something!”

“It’s either getting killed here, where I have a bed and a something to eat, or starve in some alley.”

“I…I guess you’re right…”

They keep talking but Sorey has heard enough so he goes back. It seems the guild’s job really is to scam people but he still doesn’t know how they’re doing it, just they’re having vulnerable people do their dirty job. With renewed conviction he heads for the stairs again and to the third and last floor.

There the malevolence gets even thicker. Now it’s a little hard to breath and he feels the starting of a headache settling comfortably between his eyes. He swallows hard and keeps going, knowing that he must be close to something.

Here there’s barely any light, with the windows in the hallway upholstered with wooden planks and the place is silent and still, unlike the other floors when there was at least some people about. There are many doors too and he dares to try them: some open to empty rooms full of boxes, some don’t and one in particular is open.

He peaks inside and finds a well-lighted office. The walls are covered in tall bookshelves, all filled with parchments rather than books. There’s a man hunched over the desk, carefully writing something in piece of parchment…very obviously copying something from another one. He’s very thin and bony, but not unhealthy. His hair is dirty blonde, long enough to fall at the sides of his head and obscure most of what he’s doing.

He gets closer silently and the man turns his head in his direction. Sorey’s heart stops, thinking the man can see him, but his gaze is falling somewhere behind him.

Outside, the sound of footsteps catches Sorey’s attention, he hadn’t noticed them until now. He relaxes, as much as he can with the malevolence around him anyway and moves to the side, turning to see who is coming.

A bulky looking man comes marching in.

“Are you done?” the man barks.

“Almost,” the thin man sneers quietly “it would be faster if you didn’t push work over me like I were a machine!”

“You’ve been working on that for days now, Alistair” the man complains “you’re delaying us.”

Alistair scoffs and turns back to the desk.

“And pray tell, what exactly I’m delaying, Michael? We have enough money already.” He spits.

“You know why we are doing this,” Michael says firmly “it was your idea.”

“But I didn’t want to go this far!” Alistair exclaims “if you weren’t a greedy son of a bitch we—!”

Michael gets closer to Alistair in an impetuous, quick movement that startles even Sorey. He takes the other man by his bony left wrist and manhandles him to make him stand up.

“You should watch that tongue of yours,” Michael threatens “if you want to keep it.”

Alistair doesn’t let himself be intimidated.

“I’m too necessary for this business of yours,” he says with confidence “you can’t touch me.”

Michael laughs.

“You think so? Well you don’t need your tongue to do your job,” he remarks “or your left arm for that matter.” He twists Alistair wrist, hard enough to make him whimper.

Just then the malevolence gets denser, more oppressive. It’s coming off from Alistair and while he tries to free himself from the other’s man grips, Sorey feels lightheaded and weak.

He needs to get out of here, he decides and stumbles to the door. Alistair and Michael keep arguing, but their voices reach Sorey as if they were underwater. He struggles to keep going, leaning against the wall as he gets down the stairs over shaky knees, the tolerable malevolence than permeated the building is gone and now the presence of it is making it hard to breath.

When he finally reaches the lobby he’s barely holding himself up. He makes it for the door and when he gets outside he falls on the hard stone of the street, but he doesn’t feel the impact at all.

At the other side of the street Velvet sees him get out of the building in a frantic manner and then go sprawling all over the ground. She goes running to him in an instant, not caring if she looks like she’s crazy or if someone at the guild recognizes her.

Once close enough she gets on her knees, slipping through the floor.

“Sorey!” she calls, putting a hand on his shoulder and shaking him “Sorey, what happened?!”

He tries to get up and fails miserably, the malevolence is slipping out of the building now and he can only guess what’s happening inside.

“I have…” he mumbles, struggling to get the words out “…away from here, I—I can’t…”

“You need to get away from here?” Velvet asks, Sorey nods weakly. “Okay, can you—?” no, she thinks he obviously can’t stand “I’ll carry you on my back,” she informs and gets to it.

People look at her funny all the while she spends putting Sorey on her back but she doesn’t give a damn. Once he’s securely on top of her she takes him firmly by the back of his knees and starts walking towards the Sanctuary.

* * *

When Velvet arrives the Sanctuary is full of people. A priest near the altar is talking to a bunch of townspeople and they listen attentively. Sitting in the altar itself is Edna, her eyes close and her umbrella over her shoulder, it doesn’t look like she’s doing anything but upon closer inspection it’s obvious she’s concentrating on something.

“Edna!” Velvet calls without regards of the people there.

Edna heeds her voice and opens her eyes, composing a displeased expression on her face but the moment she sees Sorey half-conscious on Velvet’s back she gets on her feet.

“Come here,” she says, the faintest edge of worry in her voice, as she walks to one of the back doors.

Velvet goes behind her immediately, the people look at her in varying degrees of perplex, noticing the hunched way she walks and where she’s headed.

“Hey!” a mature woman calls, a scowl on her face “where you think you’re going?!”

Velvet shots her a cold, deadly gaze and the woman backs away.

“It’s fine,” the priest says then, recognizing her from this morning “please don’t mind her.” He tells to the crowd.

Velvet nods in thanks to him and then goes to Edna, who has already opened the door and is waiting impatiently for her.

Once in the backyard Velvet pretends to put Sorey down on the grass, but Edna tells her to keep walking and she takes them to the other building.

“This is where the priest and acolytes live,” Edna explains and opens the door.

Inside Edna immediately heads to the stairs and Velvet huffs, feeling sweat trickling down her forehead. Sorey’s almost dead weight is becoming harder to hold by the minute, but she makes one last effort to get him to the next floor.

There Edna opens another door, clearly familiar with the outlay. It’s an office that thankfully has a long enough couch for Sorey to lay down and Velvet puts him there, slow and careful, laying his head over a cushion. He mumbles a quiet “thank you” at that.

“What happened?” Edna asks then, putting a hand over Sorey’s forehead “he’s got a fever.”

“I’m not sure,” Velvet says “I…”

“M—,” Sorey tries to say then, catching their undivided attention. He takes a couple of very deep breaths before mustering the strength to continue. “Malevolence, I…the— the place was full of malevolence.” He explains in dragged breaths.

“What?” Edna exclaims, barely rising her voice and turning to look at Velvet, ready to have her explain what the hell is going on.

She silence any of her questions, however, when she notices how distraught Velvet seems looking at Sorey.

Velvet isn’t even conscious of how still she suddenly is, how her breathing has gone ragged, the sweat in her palms or the itching in her eyes. She has carry another boy like she carried Sorey, she has seen another boy break in a fever, she has seen another boy gone pale as a ghost and breath like it hurts. She has seen another boy affected this much for malevolence before.

She wonders if this is her fault.

“Will he turn into a dragon?” she finds herself asking, and it’s the second time today she speaks what she dreads the most, and maybe she’s the one dooming her own fate, again.

“He won’t,” Edna says firmly and Velvet tears her eyes from Sorey to look at her “I can’t feel any malevolence around him at all, he’ll be fine, however…” she kneels besides Sorey and touches his forehead again. He tries to smile at her and fails “it shouldn’t affect him like this, especially if he’s away from the source.”

Velvet sighs deeply and looks at Sorey again. He seems less unconscious now, but he’s still choosing not to talk, still looking terribly tired.  She gets near him and touches his face too, to see how bad the fever is: she can gladly declare it’s not bad, and she knows what bad looks like.

“I’ll go get something for his fever,” she announces.

“There’s a kitchen in the ground floor,” Edna tells her “you should find everything you need there, and if someone tries to stop you tell them Priest Sean allowed you in.”

“Got it.”

She leaves the room and goes to look for the kitchen. She finds it fairly quickly and then goes through cupboards and drawers looking for what she needs. It’s terribly familiar, putting in the stove rosemary tea with a bit of verbena, getting a basin full of cold water and a clean cloth to submerge in it.

She’s calmer than a moment before, however, a mild fever is something she can manage and Edna said, sure of herself, that Sorey wasn’t turning into a dragon. That’s good, that’s…that’s very good.

Velvet waits for the tea to be ready and then puts everything she needs in a tray and heads back to the office. She encounters no one on her way there.

When she’s back she finds Edna standing up, looking pissed.

“I tried to ask him what happened but he’s not talking,” Edna says, turning to Velvet “so you are going to tell me.”

“When I’m done with this,” Velvet answer, passing beside her to put the tray over a table. She pours a cup of the tea and leaves it to cool off, then squeezes the cloth and goes to Sorey.

“Here,” she says, putting it over his forehead. “How are you feeling?”

“Good,” he rasps, closing his eyes and enjoying the coldness of the cloth.

“Once the tea is colder you can have it.”

“I—“

“I don’t care if you aren’t ‘comfortable’ around food, you’re gonna drink it and that’s final.” She says with not room for objections.

“O—okay,” he mumbles.

After one last intimidating glance towards him, Velvet turns to the table and starts passing the tea from a cup to other one, to cold it faster. While she’s doing that she starts telling Edna what she knows.

When Velvet is done Edna turns to Sorey.

“You felt the malevolence, didn’t you?” She says accusatorily to him. Sorey looks away “if you did why you went in, anyway? You don’t have a vessel.”

“It wasn’t that much,” he answers quietly “I— we’ve felt stronger malevolence.” He manages.

Edna narrows her eyes.

“You weren’t a seraph back then,” she says flatly “and we had a very strong vessel. It was reckless of you.”

Sorey doesn’t grace that with answer, it’s hard to say if that is because he doesn’t want or because talking is still too much of an effort. Edna sighs and looks away.

“We’ll talk once you’re feeling better.” Edna declares and goes for the door “I’ll be at the Sanctuary, if you need anything.” She says to Velvet and leaves.

“She’s mad,” Sorey says in resignation when the door is closed.

“You think?” Velvet comments, still messing with the tea “I think she’s worried…but also mad.”

Sorey sighs. They spend some time in silence, this place is as serene as the yard was. At some point Velvet goes to wet the cloth again and Sorey tells her she doesn’t need to do that. She says she doesn’t mind.

“Can you sit?” she asks after a long wait.

He nods and slowly sits up. Velvet goes to him with the cup of tea, but instead of offering it for him to take, she sits beside him and puts the cup close to his lips.

“Here, small sips,” she says, soft but firmly enough to remind him she won’t tolerate his antics.

He breaths deeply and don’t wanting to make her mad too decides it can’t be too bad to drink the tea. He takes a small sip, just like she told him; the flavor is bitter and heavy and it stays in his mouth even after swallowing. He recoils at that and feels Velvet putting a firm hand on his back, stopping him from getting away and, soon enough, tracing small circles to comfort him.

It reminds him of the few times he was sick as a kid and Gramps or any other adult would look after him. He takes a few more sips and then Velvet puts the cup down in her lap.

“Not so bad right?” She says with a smile.

“Yeah,” he complies, surprised at how tender her voice is “you seem use to this,” he notices.

“My brother was sick all the time,” Velvet answers, low and soft, taking the cloth still stick to Sorey’s forehead “I had to look after him.”

“I see,” he says, and when Velvet rises the cup again he stops it, taking the cup “I can do it myself.” He smiles.

“Sorry,” Velvet looks to the side, a little embarrassed. Sorey is not a child, after all.

“It’s fine,” he takes another sip and grimaces. It really tastes like medicine.

She stands and while she washes the cloth again she asks:

“You knew there was malevolence there?”

“Yes,” Sorey responds “I guess Edna was right. It was reckless.”

“Why did you go in, then?” She turns, looking pissed “You didn’t have to, I could’ve find another way to get info.”

“I didn’t want you to find other way,” Sorey says like it’s obvious.

“What? Why?” Her sweet, tender voice is gone but Sorey doesn’t feel like she’s mad at him at all.

“I wanted to help,” he explains “and I didn’t want you to get into trouble, I just did what I thought was right.”

Velvet huffs.

“This is not your problem, you know? I was the one that told Adeline I was going to help her, you don’t need to do this.”

“But I wanted to,” Sorey looks at Velvet as sternly as he can “I want to help her and…I want to help you.”

Velvet is obviously not pleased with that answer, but he isn’t meet with an argument when she speaks again.

“What did you learn?”

Sorey tells her about the conversations he heard.

“What do you think?” he asks when he’s done “what should we do?”

“The easier thing to do would be kill them,” she says and before Sorey can express his very strong disagreement she adds “but let’s not go there, unless it’s absolutely necessary. I think…perhaps getting rid of all their documents will suffice.”

“But then they could do it again,” Sorey says “maybe Adeline won’t be a victim anymore but everyone else—”

“I’m not doing this for them,” Velvet interrupts “you’re not gonna like hearing this Sorey, but I’m not doing this because it’s the right thing to do, I’m doing a favor to Adeline, to Cecily, nothing more. I don’t care what happens to anyone else.”

“I…I do care.” He mutters.

“I’m not going to stop you if you want to do something else,” Velvet says “but this is not problem with an easy solution, and how could you confront those guys or help those people, they can’t even see you. It’s not your problem, Sorey.”

“The Lord of Calamity wasn’t my problem either, and I still dealt with him,” he says, more bitter than he intended to. He shakes his head at hearing himself.

Velvet doesn’t really know what to say to that.

“You know,” Sorey starts, looking intently at the cup between his hands “when I was the Shepherd, at those times, there were a lot of people that needed help and I wanted to help them too…Lailah told me that my duty laid elsewhere, though, I couldn’t get involved in people’s daily life, I couldn’t help in the war that was raging the continent because my power was too much and I would make them dependent of me and…I understood that,” he says with a sigh “I understood that the people needed to see for themselves, that being the Shepherd meant something else but I…I still wanted to help. There was so much people I wanted to help.”

He makes a pause and takes a sip of that awful tea because his mouth is suddenly dry. The taste is bitter and lingers in his mouth.

Velvet licks her lips, thinking carefully her next words.

“You owe nothing to this world,” she says, because she really can’t wrap her head about the unyielding selflessness Sorey expresses.

“It’s not about that,” Sorey says but doesn’t know what this is about either so he doesn’t say more. He takes another sip of the bitter tea.

“I won’t stop you,” Velvet repeats “for doing what you need to do, but I don’t want to get more involved in this than I already am.”

“That’s okay,” Sorey nods and lifts his gaze “you don’t have to.”

Velvet nods too and they spend a while in awkward silence. She gets close to him again and touches his forehead delicately.

“The fever is already getting better,” she notices “but finish the tea just to be sure. I’ll go talk to Edna.”

Sorey hums in agreement and then takes another sip of the bitter tea, his eyes somewhere else. Velvet leaves him alone.

* * *

It turns out Edna wasn’t in the Sanctuary so Velvet looks around for her in the vicinity. The place is eerie silent and empty, and if it wasn’t for the clear signs that someone lives here laying everywhere, she would thought the place was abandoned. The quietness must be something about churches and people of faith, she guesses.

At some point, in the depths of the building, she finds a half open door that leads to a set of stairs going down, and the tittering sound of something metallic hitting the ground can be heard coming from there. She decides to go investigate, if only for the slim possibility of finding Edna.

She has luck, Edna is digging in a big wooden box, getting various objects out, and other boxes lay open around her. Edna unceremoniously tosses an old candelabra to the side and grunts.

“You lost something?” Velvet asks as she gets into the basement.

If her presences startles her Edna doesn’t show it.

“Aside from my peace of mind?” she says, turning to greet her “How’s Sorey?”

“The fever is going down pretty quickly and he can sit already. I left him drinking the tea.”

“Good,” Edna nods and turns around again to keep looking for whatever she’s looking for.

“What are you doing?” Velvet asks her then, seeing how another candelabra gets thrown at the floor.

“I’m looking for something that may serve as a vessel for Sorey,” she explains “I’m sure he’s gonna be dumb again and get himself in the nest of a hellion or something equally stupid. He needs a vessel.”

“He does,” Velvet agrees and after a moment of silence says: “I wanted to ask you something.”

“For what other reason would you be here,” Edna moves to another box and now there are books flying across the place.

“You said the malevolence shouldn’t affect him like it did,” Velvet starts “that he should be fine if he was away from the source, why did it hurt him like that then?”

“I can only guess,” Edna says in a troubled whisper.

“And what do you guess?” Velvet presses.

Edna leaves what she’s doing and turns around.

“Maybe it is because he has never been exposed to malevolence before, as a seraph, I mean,” she starts saying with a thoughtful expression “and I don’t know  how much it really was, he says it wasn’t much but in comparison to how much it used to be in the world any amount would seem insignificant.”

“You don’t think it’s something we should worry about?”

Edna thinks over her answer.

“No, I don’t think so, for now.”

“Good.”

“So now that he’s not dying,” Edna continues, moving to yet another box “did he tell you what happened inside the building?”

Velvet tells her the story, the conversations and that the malevolence was coming from a guy named Alistair.

“And what is your plan, knowing all that?” Edna questions when she’s done.

“I’m gonna sneak in the place and burn all the contracts they have, originals and copies.”

“Bold,” Edna comments “but efficient all the same. What does Sorey think?”

“He would like to do something more, we burn it all and they simply do it again.”

“Of course he does,” Edna mumbles, tired.

After that Velvet helps Edna look for something suitable to be Sorey’s vessel, but even when they find a wooden charm and a ceramic bottle that, according to Edna, are very antique and blessed in some way, it’s unlikely they’ll work for him.

“Because he’s a lighting seraph,” she explains when Velvet asks what’s wrong with them “we need a vessel compatible with our power, something metallic would work better for him.”

They keep looking but nothing comes up so they leave…and because of Velvet’s insistence, they put everything neatly back to its place.

Back with Sorey, they find him standing at the window, looking wistfully at the yard, the teacup empty in his hand.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are things that went untold on this chapter, obviiously, but it is already way too long 
> 
> the next chapter will be the last one we'll be on Ladylake
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
